L Ouattara1,
K B Bla1,
S B Assi2,
W Yavo1,2,
A J Djaman1,3 
For correspondence:- A Djaman Email: djamanj@yahoo.fr Tel:+22522503560
Received: 5 May 2010 Accepted: 11 September 2010 Published: 23 December 2010
Citation: Ouattara L, Bla KB, Assi SB, Yavo W, Djaman AJ. PFCRT and DHFR-TS Sequences for Monitoring Drug Resistance in Adzopé Area of Côte d´Ivoiré After the Withdrawal of Chloroquine and Pyrimethamine. Trop J Pharm Res 2010; 9(6):565-572 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v9i6.7
© 2010 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: Drug resistance is probably the greatest challenge to most malaria-control programmes. The goal of this study was to evaluate polymorphisms in parasite resistance gene markers, pfcft and dhfr, from falciparum malaria isolates collected in Adzopé City, Côte d’Ivoire in 2007.
Methods: Blood samples were collected in filter paper from 72 children infected with Plasmodium falciparum living in Adzopé area. Plasmodium falciparum DNA was extracted and nested PCRs were performed using specific primers of pfcrt and dhfr-ts. During the study, chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (which previously were the first- and second-line treatments, respectively, for malaria in Côte d’Ivoire) were not given to the enrolled children, having been withdrawn in 2004.
Results: The results revealed the presence of the mutant-type pfcrt and dhfr-ts in 51 (62.2 %) and 29 (35.4 %) samples, respectively. The mutant-type pfcrt alleles consisted of four single mutations (Met74/Asn75/Thr76) and 47 triple mutations (Ile74/Glu75/Thr76). However, the frequency distribution of mutations in dhfr-ts was 35.4 % for dhfr-Asn108, 17 % for dhfr-Ile51 and 21 % for dhfr-Arg59.
Conclusion: The results of this study show high presence of chloroquine (CQ) resistance markers while for sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), a much lower prevalence was detected for the markers under study. Chloroquine remains an inadequate drug for malaria therapy in the study region. Furthermore, in spite of the official withdrawal of CQ and SP in favour of the arteminisin-based combinations (ACTs), it appears the population of this area continues to use the drugs via self-medication.
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