Abstract
With the emergence of drug-resistant vivax malaria, in vitro studies are urgently needed to examine resistance mechanisms and for drug development. Currently, Plasmodium vivax culturing is inadequate for addressing these needs; therefore, surrogate biological systems have been developed. Although these systems are informative, they do not address Plasmodium species-specific mechanisms, such as drug delivery through erythrocytes and parasite membranes. Here, we demonstrate that P. falciparum is an excellent biological system for expression of P. vivax dhfr-ts alleles to assess dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR)-thymidylate synthase interactions with antifolates. Our results show that the P. vivax dhfr-ts quadruple-mutant allele AMRU1, expressed in P. falciparum, provides significant protection against pyrimethamine, cycloguanil, and clocicguanil. Moreover, the PvDHFR quadruple mutant confers greater resistance to cycloguanil, clociguanil, and WR99210 than the PfDHFR quadruple mutant. Modeling of both P. vivax and P. falciparum DHFR quadruple mutants suggests that mutations unique to P. vivax DHFR are responsible for differences seen in parasite susceptibility to antifolates.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
