New mutation in malaria parasite may resist drug used to prevent the disease: Study

A new study has found that new mutation in the malaria parasite enhances resistance to a drug used to prevent the disease in pregnant women and children.

Malaria is a parasitic disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, spread by the bite of the female mosquito called Anopheles. According to the World Health Organization, there were an estimated 229 million malaria cases in 2019, and more than 4 lakhs died during the same year due to the disease.

Symptoms Of Malaria

Symptoms of the disease include shaking chills, headache, muscle aches and tiredness, Nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea may also occur. If not promptly treated, the infection can become severe and lead to complications. Drugs are the primary treatment available for human malaria, caused by Plasmodium spp.

But a new study has found that new mutation in the malaria parasite enhances resistance to a drug used to prevent the disease in pregnant women and children are already common in countries fighting the disease.

Efforts To Control Malaria Hampered By New Parasites

The study published in the journal PLOS Genetics found that the rise of drug-resistant strains of the parasite species that causes malaria has hampered the efforts taken to control the disease.

"We need to understand how these mutations work and monitor them as part of malaria surveillance programmes," said study co-author Taane Clark from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), for example, was once a first-line anti-malarial treatment but is now primarily used to prevent infection in pregnant women and children.

Mutations in two genes in the parasite Plasmodium falciparum offer resistance to SP, but recently, mutations related to resistance were discovered in a third gene, pfgch1.

Researchers analysed 4,134 blood samples from 29 countries with malaria epidemic to understand the extent and spread of the new mutations.

The team discovered at least ten different versions of pfgch1 in about one-quarter of the samples from Southeast Asia and one-third samples from Africa.

The growth in the number of malaria parasites with pfgch1 mutations is concerning because the mutations enhance resistance to SP and may encourage the evolution of new resistant strains.

The growth of these parasites threatens the efforts to use SP to prevent malaria in patients who are at a higher risk.

(with inputs from IANS)