Abstract
It has been proposed that ovale malaria in humans is caused by two closely related but distinct species of malaria parasites: P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri. We have extended and optimized a Real-time PCR assay targeting the parasite’s small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssrRNA) gene to detect both these species. When the assay was applied to 31 archival blood samples from patients diagnosed with P. ovale, it was found that the infection in 20 was due to P. ovale curtisi and in the remaining 11 to P. ovale wallikeri. Thus, this assay provides a useful tool that can be applied to epidemiological investigations of the two newly recognized distinct P. ovale species, that might reveal if these species also differ in their clinical manifestation, drugs susceptibility and relapse periodicity. The results presented confirm that P. ovale wallikeri is not confined to Southeast Asia, since the majority of the patients analyzed in this study had acquired their P. ovale infection in African countries, mostly situated in West Africa.
Highlights
Plasmodium ovale, most probably first observed in 1900 by Charles F
We wished to develop an real-time PCR assay (Rt-PCR) assay for P. ovale wallikeri based on the same highly conserved non-protein coding small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssrRNA) gene, that is the target of our previously developed Rt-PCR assays that we routinely use for the detection of the other Plasmodium species [11,17]
The specificity of the new Pov Rt-PCR was tested by using purified DNA obtained by blood samples from 10 healthy individuals and by 9 blood samples PCR-confirmed to be positive for P. falciparum, 9 for P. vivax and 5 for P. malariae and a synthetic DNA oligonucleotide containing a target sequence of P. knowlesi ssrRNA gene
Summary
Adriana Calderaro1*, Giovanna Piccolo, Chiara Gorrini, Sara Montecchini, Sabina Rossi, Maria Cristina Medici, Carlo Chezzi, Georges Snounou.
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