Abstract
Background: The emergence and spread of drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum is a major problem of public health concern. Due to the high incidence of parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have now replaced those failing drugs in order to combat the growing drug resistance. Aim: This study is undertaken to detect resistant strains of P. falciparum to artemisinin in infected human blood in Owo. Methods: A total of 1000 participants took part in the study. Falciparum malaria was confirmed by microscopic examination of Giemsastained blood samples from patients who presented with fever at Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo state, Nigeria. Molecular methods were employed to detect a marker of resistance of P. falciparum to artemisinins: Parasite DNA was extracted from patient blood using Tris-EDTA buffer-based extraction method. Amplification was carried out by Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction followed by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (PCR/RFLP) for the detection of falciparum sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium dependent ATPase (SERCA) PfATPase 6 gene mutation. Results: The result showed that resistant PfATPase 6 gene which codes for artemisinin resistance was not present in the population studied. Conclusion: Since there was no resistant gene detected in the population studied, it could be said that artemisinin resistance has not yet developed in this area and subsequent monitoring of resistance pattern to artemisinin based therapy is advised in order to detect and prevent its spread. Keywords: Artemisinin, pfATPase, falciparum malaria, S769N mutation, polymorphism, drug resistance
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