Changing pattern of Plasmodium falciparum multi-drug resistance-1 gene polymorphisms in

southern Rwanda.

Welmoed van Loon, Clara Bergmann, Felix Habarugira, Costanza Tacoli, Darius Savelsberg, Rafael Oliveira, Djibril Mbarushimana, Jules Ndoli, Augustin Sendegeya, Claude Bayingana, Frank P. Mockenhaupt

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2021 (accepted). doi: 10.1128/AAC.00901-21.

Abstract:

Plasmodium falciparum multidrug resistance-1 gene (pfmdr1) polymorphisms associate with altered antimalarial susceptibility. Between 2010 and 2018/19, we observed that the prevalence of the wildtype allele N86 and the wildtype combination NYD increased ten-fold (4% versus 40%) and more than two-fold (18% versus 44%), respectively. Haplotypes other than NYD or NFD declined by up to >90%. Our molecular data suggest the pfmdr1 pattern to have shifted towards one associated with artemether-lumefantrine resistance.