Abstract
We performed a molecular epidemiologic survey of mutations associated with drug-resistance genes in Plasmodium falciparum in northeastern Myanmar. In this region, 3 highly mutated drug-resistance haplotypes and 1 associated with decreased quinine susceptibility were prevalent, which suggests that parasites may be resistant to multiple commonly used antimalarial drugs.
Highlights
We performed a molecular epidemiologic survey of mutations associated with drug-resistance genes in Plasmodium falciparum in northeastern Myanmar
Of the 118 samples with monoclonal infection, 117 samples were successfully genotyped by PCR and sequencing at 5 known and putative drug-resistance genes, some of which have been widely used for resistance surveillance and as predictors of clinical efficacy of antimalarial drugs
Our molecular survey showed that the major chloroquine resistance allele CVIET has reached fixation, and triple and quadruple mutations in pfdhfr and pfdhps were highly prevalent in this region
Summary
Author affiliations: Kunming Medical University, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China Parasite DNA was extracted from filter papers and genotyped at 3 polymorphic genes, which detected 54.6% of samples containing mixed-strain infections [5]. Sequencing of 2 fragments in the P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (pfcrt) gene covering single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at codons 72–76 and 220, respectively [6], showed that the major chloroquine resistance determinant K76T mutation has reached fixation in the parasite population (Figure 1).
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