The genetics of resistant malaria

Gretchen Vogel

The region around the Mekong River delta is infamous for its malaria parasites. Twice already—in the 1950s and the 1960s—they have developed resistance to key drugs, and the underlying mutations spread inexorably around the world, forcing public health officials to find new ways to fight the disease. Now it is happening again. Over the last decade, artemisinin, the most powerful drug available to cure malaria, has failed in more and more people in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, and border regions of Thailand. Researchers and public health experts worry that history will repeat itself and the resistant parasites will go global. Though efforts to contain and eliminate resistant strains have been so far unsuccessful, two papers published online this week in Science offer new insights into the genes behind the threat—insights that should help scientists identify and track resistant parasites and perhaps find better ways to kill them.

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In Science Magazine

REPORTPopulation transcriptomics of human malaria parasites reveals the mechanism of artemisinin resistance
- Sachel Mok,
- Elizabeth A. Ashley,
- Pedro E. Ferreira,
- Lei Zhu,
- Zhaoting Lin,
- Tomas Yeo,
- Kesinee Chotivanich,
- Mallika Imwong,
- Sasithon Pukrittayakamee,
- Mehul Dhorda,
- Chea Nguon,
- Pharath Lim,
- Chanaki Amaratunga,
- Seila Suon,
- Tran Tinh Hien,
- Ye Htut,
- M. Abul Faiz,
- Marie A. Onyamboko,
- Mayfong Mayxay,
- Paul N. Newton,
- Rupam Tripura,
- Charles J. Woodrow,
- Olivo Miotto,
- Dominic P. Kwiatkowski,
- François Nosten,
- Nicholas P. J. Day,
- Peter R. Preiser,
- Nicholas J. White,
- Arjen M. Dondorp,
- Rick M. Fairhurst,
- and Zbynek Bozdech
Science 1260403Published online 11 December 2014
REPORTK13-propeller mutations confer artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum clinical isolates
- Judith Straimer,
- Nina F. Gnädig,
- Benoit Witkowski,
- Chanaki Amaratunga,
- Valentine Duru,
- Arba P. Ramadani,
- Mélanie Dacheux,
- Nimol Khim,
- Lei Zhang,
- Stephen Lam,
- Philip D. Gregory,
- Fyodor D. Urnov,
- Odile Mercereau-Puijalon,
- Françoise Benoit-Vical,
- Rick M. Fairhurst,
- Didier Ménard,
- and David A. Fidock
Science 1260867Published online 11 December 2014

In Science Translational Medicine

RESEARCH ARTICLEMALARIACharacterization of an in vivo concentration-effect relationship for piperaquine in malaria chemoprevention
- Martin Bergstrand,
- François Nosten,
- Khin Maung Lwin,
- Mats O. Karlsson,
- Nicholas J. White,
- and Joel Tarning
Sci Transl Med 29 October 2014: 260ra147.
RESEARCH ARTICLEMALARIALoss and dysfunction of Vδ2⁺ γδ T cells are associated with clinical tolerance to malaria
- Prasanna Jagannathan,
- Charlie C. Kim,
- Bryan Greenhouse,
- Felistas Nankya,
- Katherine Bowen,
- Ijeoma Eccles-James,
- Mary K. Muhindo,
- Emmanuel Arinaitwe,
- Jordan W. Tappero,
- Moses R. Kamya,
- Grant Dorsey,
- and Margaret E. Feeney
Sci Transl Med 27 August 2014: 251ra117.
RESEARCH ARTICLEMALARIANew antigens for a multicomponent blood-stage malaria vaccine
- Faith H. Osier,
- Margaret J. Mackinnon,
- Cécile Crosnier,
- Gregory Fegan,
- Gathoni Kamuyu,
- Madushi Wanaguru,
- Edna Ogada,
- Brian McDade,
- Julian C. Rayner,
- Gavin J. Wright,
- and Kevin Marsh
Sci Transl Med 30 July 2014: 247ra102.
REPORTSMALARIAPlasmodium falciparum transmission stages accumulate in the human bone marrow
- Regina Joice,
- Sandra K. Nilsson,
- Jacqui Montgomery,
- Selasi Dankwa,
- Elizabeth Egan,
- Belinda Morahan,
- Karl B. Seydel,
- Lucia Bertuccini,
- Pietro Alano,
- Kim C. Williamson,
- Manoj T. Duraisingh,
- Terrie E. Taylor,
- Danny A. Milner,
- and Matthias Marti
Sci Transl Med 9 July 2014: 244re5.