Abstract

Over the past decade, the number of malaria cases has dropped by more than half in many malaria-endemic countries. However, recent parasite resistance to artemisinin undermines that progress. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) is recommended for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Among the potential genes that are associated to resistance of P. falciparum to artemisinin include PfATPase6 gene that encodes the protein SERCA: the specific target of drugs in the parasite. PfATPase6 was the subject of many studies across the world to highlight its’ involvement in the resistance of P. falciprum to artemisinin. It was found in this work that this gene has a polymorphism but its’ involvement in the resistance of the parasite has not been demonstrated. The objective of this study was to describe the basic polymorphism of clinical isolates of P. falciparum in Côte d'Ivoire during the period when the country national anti- malaria program introduced ACTs in the treatment of malaria. Thus, 82 DNA fragments from 41 clinical isolates divided into regions A and B were analyzed using automatic sequencing method. The results show more points mutation of DNA fragments of PfATP6 but the most significant are D734Y (29.2%), Q254H (9.7%), N669Y (14.6%) and S670C (12.2%). Other mutations emerged in marginal proportions. We therefore recommend strict monitoring of gene polymorphism in PfATPase6 in as much as the effectiveness of artemisinin derivatives is concerned; but the fact remains that their involvement in the resistance of P falciparum to artemisinin is still very low.

Key words: Côte d’Ivoire, detection, mutations, PfATPase6, polymorphism.