Objective
Nigeria bears 25% of global malaria burden despite concerted efforts towards its control and elimination. The emergence of drug resistance to first line drugs, artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), indicates an urgent need for continuous molecular surveillance of drug resistance especially in high burden countries where drug interventions are heavily relied on. This study describes mutations in Plasmodium falciparum genes associated with drug resistance in malaria; Pfk1 3, Pfmdr1 , PfATPase6 and Pfcrt in isolates obtained from 83 symptomatic malaria patients between 1-61 years old from Lagos, a Mega city in South-west Nigeria.
Results
Two Pfmdr 1, N86 and Y184 variants were present at a prevalence of 56% and 13.25% of isolates respectively. There was one synonymous (S679S) and two non-synonymous (M699V, S769M) mutations in the Pfatp6 gene, while Pfcrt genotype (CVIET), had a prevalence of 45%. The Pfk13 C580Y mutant allele was detected by allelic discrimination in two samples with mixed genotypes. Pfk13 C580Y in west Africa is rare and this result calls for robust and larger scale surveillance of artemisinin resistance associated polymorphisms and delayed clearance phenotype in Nigeria.