A deep sequencing tool for partitioning clearance rates following antimalarial treatment in polyclonal infections.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Current tools struggle to detect drug-resistant malaria parasites when infections contain multiple parasite clones, which is the norm in high transmission settings in Africa. Our aim was to develop and apply an approach for detecting resistance that overcomes the challenges of polyclonal infections without requiring a genetic marker for resistance.

Methodology

Clinical samples from patients treated with artemisinin combination therapy were collected from Tanzania and Cambodia. By deeply sequencing a hypervariable locus, we quantified the relative abundance of parasite subpopulations (defined by haplotypes of that locus) within infections and revealed evolutionary dynamics during treatment. Slow clearance is a phenotypic, clinical marker of artemisin

SUBMITTER: Mideo N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4753362 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature