Short Communication: Natural frequency of polymorphisms linked to the chondroitin 4-sulfotransferase genes and its association with placental malaria
Reference:
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume 104, Issue 10, October 2010, Pages 687-689
The general aim of this work was to examine whether common polymorphisms of genes involved in chondroitin sulphate A (CSA) synthesis influence susceptibility to and manifestation of malaria during pregnancy.
Medical Condition:
The current paper focuses on interactions between the Plasmodium parasite and its metabolically highly reduced host cell, the natural selection of numerous polymorphisms in the genes encoding hemoglobin and other erythrocyte proteins.
Seven of these eight infection-associated and linked SNPs alter codon frequency or introduce non-synonymous changes that would be predicted to alter protein structure and, hence, function, suggesting that these SNPs could alter immune signaling and responsiveness to parasite infection.
Association of parasite load with genotypes was examined using model based and model free approaches.
We concluded that the studied polymorphisms in Pfnhe-1 did not appear as valid molecular markers of in vitro susceptibility to quinine in P. falciparum isolates from Africa.
Artemether-lumefantrine (AL), dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP), and amodiaquine-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (AQ-SP) offer excellent antimalarial efficacy but may select for parasite polymorphisms that decrease drug sensitivity. We evaluated the selection of known polymorphisms in genes encoding putative transporters (pfcrt and pfmdr1) and SP targets (pfdhfr and pfdhps) in parasites that caused new infections within 42 days of therapy for uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Burkina Faso.