Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Jazan University, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 2 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Medical Research Centre, Jazan University, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 4 Faculty of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Jazan University, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Saudi Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • 6 Medical Research Centre, Jazan University, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. halmekhlafi@yahoo.com
Parasitol Res, 2021 Nov;120(11):3771-3781.
PMID: 34561749 DOI: 10.1007/s00436-021-07323-4

Abstract

This study investigated the polymorphism in the P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (pfcrt) gene 11 years after chloroquine (CQ) cessation in Jazan region, southwestern Saudi Arabia. Two hundred and thirty-five P. falciparum isolates were amplified to detect mutations in the pfcrt gene. The pfcrt 76 T molecular marker for CQ resistance was detected in 66.4% (156/235) of the isolates, while the K76 CQ-sensitive wild type was detected in 33.6%. The pfcrt 74I and pfcrt 75E point mutations were each found to be present in 56.2% of isolates, while only four isolates (1.7%) were found to carry the pfcrt 72S mutation. Moreover, four pfcrt haplotypes were identified as follows: the CVIET triple-allele (56.2%), SVMET double-allele (1.7%) and CVMNT single-allele (8.5%) mutant haplotypes and the CVMNK wild haplotype (33.6%). The analysis also revealed significant associations between the prevalence of mutant pfcrt alleles and haplotypes and the age group, governorate and nationality of the patients as well as the parasitaemia level (p 

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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