Evolution of Antimalarial Drug Resistance Markers in the Reservoir of Plasmodium falciparum Infections in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The majority of Plasmodium falciparum infections, constituting the reservoir in all ages, are asymptomatic in high-transmission settings in Africa. The role of this reservoir in the evolution and spread of drug resistance was explored.

Methods

Population genetic analyses of the key drug resistance-mediating polymorphisms were analyzed in a cross-sectional survey of asymptomatic P. falciparum infections across all ages in Bongo District, Ghana.

Results

Seven years after the policy change to artemisinin-based combination therapies in 2005, the pfcrt K76 and pfmdr1 N86 wild-type alleles have nearly reached fixation and have expanded via soft selective sweeps on multiple genetic backgrounds. By constructing the pfcrt-pfmdr1-pfdhfr-pfdhps multilocus haplotypes,

SUBMITTER: Narh CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7982568 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature