Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Parasites in Ghana Show Signatures of Balancing Selection at Artemisinin Resistance Predisposing Background Genes

Artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

BACKGROUND Artemisinin-based combination therapies are the recommended first-line treatments of falciparum malaria in all countries with endemic disease. There are recent concerns that the efficacy of such therapies has declined on the Thai-Cambodian border, historically a site of emerging antimalarial-drug resistance. METHODS In two open-label, randomized trials, we compared the efficacies o...

Artemisinin Resistance in Plasmodium falciparum Malaria

Spread of artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

BACKGROUND Artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum has emerged in Southeast Asia and now poses a threat to the control and elimination of malaria. Mapping the geographic extent of resistance is essential for planning containment and elimination strategies. METHODS Between May 2011 and April 2013, we enrolled 1241 adults and children with acute, uncomplicated falciparum malaria in an o...

Artemisinin Resistance in Falciparum Malaria

We reported two cases of complicated falciparum malaria who had poor response to artesunate with delayed parasite clearance times. They were splenectomized patients who were treated with high doses of artemisinin derivatives. Our cases showed the importance of the spleen in the clearance of malaria parasites and had different clinical outcome, one fatal and one recovery. The host factors, the p...

SNP Genotyping Identifies New Signatures of Selection in a Deep Sample of West African Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Parasites

We used a high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism array to genotype 75 Plasmodium falciparum isolates recently collected from Senegal and The Gambia to search for signals of selection in this malaria endemic region. We found little geographic or temporal stratification of the genetic diversity among the sampled parasites. Through application of the iHS and REHH haplotype-based tests for pos...