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ABSTRACT: Background
Recent cases of clinical failure in malaria patients in the United Kingdom (UK) treated with artemether-lumefantrine have implications for malaria chemotherapy worldwide.Methods
Parasites were isolated from an index case of confirmed Plasmodium falciparum treatment failure after standard treatment, and from comparable travel-acquired UK malaria cases. Drug susceptibility in vitro and genotypes at 6 resistance-associated loci were determined for all parasite isolates and compared with clinical outcomes for each parasite donor.Results
A traveler, who returned to the UK from Uganda in 2022 with Plasmodium falciparum malaria, twice failed treatment with full courses of artemether-lumefantrine. Parasites from the patient exhibited significantly reduced susceptibility to artemisinin (ring-stage survival, 17.3% [95% confidence interval {CI}, 13.6%-21.1%]; P < .0001) and lumefantrine (effective concentration preventing 50% of growth = 259.4 nM [95% CI, 130.6-388.2 nM]; P = .001). Parasite genotyping identified an allele of pfk13 encoding both the A675V variant in the Pfk13 propeller domain and a novel L145V nonpropeller variant. In vitro susceptibility testing of 6 other P. falciparum lines of Ugandan origin identified reduced susceptibility to artemisinin and lumefantrine in 1 additional line, also from a 2022 treatment failure case. These parasites did not harbor a pfk13 propeller domain variant but rather the novel nonpropeller variant T349I. Variant alleles of pfubp1, pfap2mu, and pfcoronin were also identified among the 7 parasite lines.Conclusions
We confirm, in a documented case of artemether-lumefantrine treatment failure imported from Uganda, the presence of pfk13 mutations encoding L145V and A675V. Parasites with reduced susceptibility to both artemisinin and lumefantrine may be emerging in Uganda.
SUBMITTER: van Schalkwyk DA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10874266 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
van Schalkwyk Donelly A DA Pratt Sade S Nolder Debbie D Stewart Lindsay B LB Liddy Helen H Muwanguzi-Karugaba Julian J Beshir Khalid B KB Britten Dawn D Victory Emma E Rogers Claire C Millard James J Brown Michael M Nabarro Laura E LE Taylor Andrew A Young Bernadette C BC Chiodini Peter L PL Sutherland Colin J CJ
Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 20240201 2
<h4>Background</h4>Recent cases of clinical failure in malaria patients in the United Kingdom (UK) treated with artemether-lumefantrine have implications for malaria chemotherapy worldwide.<h4>Methods</h4>Parasites were isolated from an index case of confirmed Plasmodium falciparum treatment failure after standard treatment, and from comparable travel-acquired UK malaria cases. Drug susceptibility in vitro and genotypes at 6 resistance-associated loci were determined for all parasite isolates an ...[more]