Malaria Treatment schedules and Socio- economic implications of mutation in the pfmdr1 and pfcrt genes of Plasmodium falciparum isolates in asymptomatic carriers in Nigeria

Abstract

Mutation in the pfcrt and pfmdr-1, genes have been implicated both to be putative CQ resistance markers.

Blood samples from 130 volunteers were obtained and genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) for pfmdr1 and pfcrt genes.

A total of 40(30.8%) questionnaires were administered to the adults and 90(69.2%) were administered to the school children. 14(10.8%) had microscopically detectable parasites on day zero with a mean parasites counts of 40,231 parasites/µL. CQ was administered to all infected, higher parasite density was observed in the poorer population. PCR-RFLP analysis on 14 parasite positive samples for pfcrt and pfmdr genotypes showed polymorphism around pfmdr1 N86Y. The parasite count decreased progressively from day 0 to day 14 to negligible levels. Conversely, our subjects still harboured sensitive strains of the parasite. Our PCR analysis of the pfcrtK76T yielded no result. A significant relationship was observed between respondents’ treatment behaviour and mutation in the pfmdr1 genes of Plasmodium falciparum.

Keywords: Polymorphism, falciparum, Genotyped, mutation, Chloroquine