Journal article

Adaptive evolution and fixation of drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum genotypes in pregnancy-associated malaria: 9-year results from the QuEERPAM study

SM Taylor, A Antonia, G Feng, V Mwapasa, E Chaluluka, M Molyneux, FO ter Kuile, SJ Rogerson, SR Meshnick

Infection Genetics and Evolution | ELSEVIER | Published : 2012

Abstract

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) has been widely deployed in Africa for malaria control and molecular evidence of parasite drug-resistance is prevalent. However, the temporal effects on the selection of Plasmodium falciparum are not well understood. We conducted a retrospective serial cross-sectional study between 1997 and 2006 to investigate changes in drug-resistant malaria among pregnant women delivering at a single hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. P. falciparum parasites were genotyped for parasite clone multiplicity and drug-resistance mutations, and the strength of selection upon mutant genotypes was quantified. Five mutations in the dihydrofolate reductase and dihydropteroate synthase gene..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by National Institutes of Health


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium (MiP), which is funded through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (to F.O.tK.). Sample collection was funded by a Career Development Fellowship and a Senior Overseas Biomedical Research Fellowship awarded by the Wellcome Trust (to S.J.R.) and by Grants from NIH (#AI 49084), NIH-FIC (#5 D43 TW00908), and the Center for AIDS Research at the University North Carolina (to S.R.M.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.