00387018

open access

Version of Record

Effects of Mefloquine Usage on Genetic Polymorphism of Plasmodium Falciparum in Thai-Myanmarese Border

English (英語)

The Kobe journal of the medical sciences

49(5/6)

143-151

Kobe University School of Medicine

2004-02

2006-07-15

We studied the polymorphism of msp-1, which encodes a major surface protein onthe merozoite, isolated from blood samples from western Thailand in 1999. Our studyarea was a low-transmission area for malaria, where mefloquine has been used as anantimalarial drug since 1994. Forty-nine patients were confirmed to have contractedfalciparum malaria twice within 24 weeks. The number of detected haplotypes in 49patients was 89 at the first diagnosis and 68 at the second diagnosis. The mean numberof haplotypes per patient significantly decreased from 1.82 to 1.39 but the frequencydistributions of msp-1 haplotypes did not change significantly with the use ofmefloquine. Our study strongly suggests that the antigenic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum is retained during mefloquine therapy in low-transmission areas.

Thailand

紀要論文