How movements in a Malaria parachute can affect pregnant women and children

Malaria causes 435,000 deaths each year in sub-Saharan Africa. Children under the age of five have been reported to suffer from the highest mortality rates. The growing danger of Plasmodium falciparum at risk of global efforts to control malaria. Scientists have recently discovered that the numbers of this malaria parasite in Africa and Southeast Asia have been growing against a currently available antimalarial drug.

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is used as a first-line treatment to prevent malaria among vulnerable groups. In fact, the SP combination is the only antimalarial drug treatment recommended by the World Health Organization for immunosuppressive treatment in pregnant women and children.

In a study published in the journal PLOS Genetics, a group of researchers looked at how to combat this major protective drug not only with mutations in the P.falciparum called parasitic genes pfdhfr, and pfdhps.

They also discovered how new forms of gene proliferation within the genome of this parasite could interfere with SP protective treatment for malaria. The researchers warn that this could stimulate the evolution of new types of defenses.

The researchers analyzed a genome sequence of 4,134 blood samples containing the P.falciparum parasite across 29 malaria-endemic countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. This includes Ethiopia, Cambodia, Kenya, Madagascar, Thailand, Myanmar, Ghana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Mali , and Gambia.

They also noticed that there are at least 10 different ones pfgch1 existing structural changes pfdhfr and pfdhps changes. That could lead to children and pregnant women with some African and Southeast Asian populations with zero protection from malaria.

SP became the first-line treatment for malaria after numbers rose against chloroquine. Artemisinin combination medications later replaced SP to treat the number of P.falciparum mutations among adults in particular.

Malawi abandoned chloroquine in early 1993 due to high rates of treatment failure. The South East has had the South East country for over 10 years as a first-line treatment. The researchers found that the pfgch1 gene and pfdhfr and pfdhps changes.

But Kenya and Tanzania introduced SP five or more years after Malawi. About 65% of the remote islands they explored from these two countries were pfgch1 gine. Among Southeast Asian countries, there were higher rates of SP-related mutations in Thailand and Myanmar.

In the study, the researchers concluded, “P. falciparum was selected by pfgch1 extension can enhance parasitic fitness by pfdhfr and pfdhps substitutes, strengthen resistance against SP, and potentially threaten the effectiveness of this rule for malaria prevention in vulnerable groups. Our work is on new forms of pfgch1 extension, which can be used for audit activities. “