Biomedicines (Jan 2024)

Are <i>pvcrt-o</i> and <i>pvmdr1</i> Gene Mutations Associated with <i>Plasmodium vivax</i> Chloroquine-Resistant Parasites?

  • Rebecca de Abreu-Fernandes,
  • Natália Ketrin Almeida-de-Oliveira,
  • Aline Rosa de Lavigne Mello,
  • Lucas Tavares de Queiroz,
  • Jacqueline de Aguiar Barros,
  • Bárbara de Oliveira Baptista,
  • Joseli Oliveira-Ferreira,
  • Rodrigo Medeiros de Souza,
  • Lilian Rose Pratt-Riccio,
  • Patrícia Brasil,
  • Cláudio Tadeu Daniel-Ribeiro,
  • Maria de Fátima Ferreira-da-Cruz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12010141
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
p. 141

Abstract

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(1) Background: Malaria remains a significant global public health issue. Since parasites quickly became resistant to most of the available antimalarial drugs, treatment effectiveness must be constantly monitored. In Brazil, up to 10% of cases of vivax malaria resistant to chloroquine (CQ) have been registered. Unlike P. falciparum, there are no definitive molecular markers for the chemoresistance of P. vivax to CQ. This work aimed to investigate whether polymorphisms in the pvcrt-o and pvmdr1 genes could be used as markers for assessing its resistance to CQ. (2) Methods: A total of 130 samples from P. vivax malaria cases with no clinical and/or parasitological evidence of CQ resistance were studied through polymerase chain reaction for gene amplification followed by target DNA sequencing. (3) Results: In the pvcrt-o exons, the K10 insert was present in 14% of the isolates. Regarding pvmdr1, T958M and F1076L haplotypes showed frequencies of 95% and 3%, respectively, while the SNP Y976F was not detected. (4) Conclusions: Since K10-pvcrt-o and F1076L/T958M-pvmdr1 polymorphisms were detected in samples from patients who responded well to CQ treatment, it can be concluded that mutations in these genes do not seem to have a potential for association with the phenotype of CQ resistance.

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