Malaria drug resistance gene identified.

Abstract

In October 2000 a US research group headed by Tom Wellems of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced that they had identified a gene that mutates to make the Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite resistant to chloroquine. The pfcrt gene is on chromosome 7 and codes for a protein on the surface of the parasites stomach. It was identified by the group by crossing chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant species of the parasite and by using molecular biology techniques to locate the gene. It is noted that chloroquine is the cheapest of the malaria drugs and was expected to help eradicate malaria from the 1950s to the 1970s. However resistance to chloroquine developed in the mid-1950s in Southeast Asia extending over most of the tropical world through the years. Identification of the pfcrt gene is a very important result which could change the foundations for thinking about the whole process of chloroquine resistance.