The detection of pfcrt and pfmdr1 point mutations as molecular markers of chloroquine drug resistance, Pahang, Malaysia

Malaria Journal

Research

Johari Surin¹  Wahib M Atroosh¹  Hesham M Al-Mekhlafi²  Mohammed AK Mahdy² 

[1] Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sana’a University, Sana’a, Yemen;

关键词: Malaria;    Chloroquine;    Mefloquine;    Uncomplicated Falciparum Malaria;    Pfmdr1 Gene;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-11-251

 received in 2012-04-25, accepted in 2012-07-23,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMalaria is still a public health problem in Malaysia with chloroquine (CQ) being the first-line drug in the treatment policy of uncomplicated malaria. There is a scarcity in information about the magnitude of Plasmodium falciparum CQ resistance. This study aims to investigate the presence of single point mutations in the P. falciparum chloroquine-resistance transporter gene (pfcrt) at codons 76, 271, 326, 356 and 371 and in P. falciparum multi-drug resistance-1 gene (pfmdr1) at codons 86 and 1246, as molecular markers of CQ resistance.MethodsA total of 75 P. falciparum blood samples were collected from different districts of Pahang state, Malaysia. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in pfcrt gene (codons 76, 271, 326, 356 and 371) and pfmdr1 gene (codons 86 and 1246) were analysed by using mutation-specific nested PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods.ResultsMutations of pfcrt K76T and pfcrt R371I were the most prevalent among pfcrt gene mutations reported by this study; 52% and 77%, respectively. Other codons of the pfcrt gene and the positions 86 and 1246 of the pfmdr1 gene were found mostly of wild type. Significant associations of pfcrt K76T, pfcrt N326S and pfcrt I356T mutations with parasitaemia were also reported.ConclusionThe high existence of mutant pfcrt T76 may indicate the low susceptibility of P. falciparum isolates to CQ in Peninsular Malaysia. The findings of this study establish baseline data on the molecular markers of P. falciparum CQ resistance, which may help in the surveillance of drug resistance in Peninsular Malaysia.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Atroosh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.