Dados do Trabalho

Título

The usefulness of pvcrt-o and pvmdr1 gene mutations as markers of Plasmodium vivax chloroquine resistance

Introdução

Malaria is still a major public health problem worldwide. Since the parasites quickly become resistant to different antimalarial drugs, their effectiveness must be constantly monitored. In Brazil, a percentage of up to 10% of vivax malaria cases resistant to chloroquine has already been registered. Unlike Plasmodium falciparum, there are no validated molecular markers for P. vivax chemoresistance (QR) to chloroquine (CQ).

Objetivo (s)

Investigate whether polymorphisms in the potential pvcrt-o and pvmdr1 genes candidates to CQ QR are associated with CQ resistance.

Material e Métodos

To this end, 130 P. vivax samples from the Legal Amazon were analyzed using polymerase chain reaction followed by target DNA sequencing.

Resultados e Conclusão

In the pvcrt-o exons, the K10 insert related to CQ QR was present in 14% of the isolates. Regarding pvmdr1, the SNPs T958M and F1076L associated to CQ QR had a frequency of 95% and 3%, respectively, while the SNP Y976F was not detected in the investigated samples. Since K10-pvcrt-o and T958M/F1076L-pvmdr1 polymorphisms were detected in samples from patients with prompt response to CQ treatment, it is concluded that these mutations have a low potential to be associated with the CQ resistant phenotype.

Palavras-chave

chloroquine; chemoresistance; malaria; P. vivax; pvcrt-o; pvmdr1.

Agradecimentos

CNPq, FAPERJ, DECIT/MS, PNCM/CGZV/SVS/MS and Fiocruz.