Malaria Research

Genetic Variation in the Duffy Blood Group and Its Impact on Susceptibility to Plasmodium vivax Malaria in Ethiopia Plasmodium vivax is a widely distributed malaria parasite in Ethiopia and remains a major challenge for elimination due to its dormant hypnozoite liver stage and efficient transmission dynamics. It primarily invades reticulocytes through interaction between the Duffy-binding protein … Read more

Rethinking Triple Artemisinin-based Therapies against Plasmodium falciparum A study published in Nature Communications shows that clinical P. falciparum isolates from Cambodia with resistance to the antimalarial drug mefloquine also tolerate the mefloquine-piperaquine combination, one of the backbone regimens proposed in triple artemisinin-based therapies (TACTs). The team found that pre-existing mefloquine resistance alone was enough to compromise the efficacy of this partner-drug combo … Read more

Non-coding Genetic Changes Linked to Drug Tolerance in Plasmodium vivax Another Nature Communications paper reports a common DNA deletion immediately downstream of the mdr1 gene in P. vivax parasites from Cambodian patients. Unlike classic resistance mutations that alter protein sequences, this 837-base-pair deletion lies in a non-coding region and does not change the mdr1 protein itself, but it does alter the 3’ untranslated region (UTR) of the gene’s … Read more