title: Influence of anti-filarial chemotherapy strategies on the genetic structure of Wuchereria bancrofti populations.
abstract: Lymphatic filarial (LF) parasites have been under anti-filarial drug pressure for more than half a century. Currently, annual mass drug administration (MDA) of diethylcarbamazine (DEC) or ivermectin in combination with albendazole (ALB) have been used globally to eliminate LF. Long-term chemotherapies exert significant pressure on the genetic structure of parasitic populations. We investigated the genetic variation among 210 Wuchereria bancrofti populations that were under three different chemotherapy strategies, namely MDA with DEC alone (group I, n = 74), MDA with DEC and ALB (group II, n = 60) and selective therapy (ST) with DEC (group III, n = 34) to understand the impact of these three drug regimens on the parasite genetic structure. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA profiles were generated for the three groups of parasite populations; the gene diversity, gene flow and genetic distance values were determined and phylogenetic trees were constructed. Analysis of these parameters indicated that parasite populations under ST with a standard dose of DEC (group III) were genetically more diverse (0.2660) than parasite populations under MDA with DEC alone (group I, H = 0.2197) or with DEC + ALB (group II, H = 0.2317). These results indicate that the MDA may reduce the genetic diversity of W. bancrofti populations when compared to the genetic diversity of parasite populations under ST.
authors.affiliation: Vector Control Research Centre, Indian Council of Medical Research, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Dhamodharan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ramasamy
authors.forename: Hoti Sugeerappa
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Laxmanappa
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Manoj Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Das
mesh_terms: D015766:Albendazole / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D000818:Animals; D004049:Diethylcarbamazine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004605:Elephantiasis, Filarial / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000469:parasitology; D005369:Filaricides / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007559:Ivermectin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D014958:Wuchereria bancrofti / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005369:Filaricides; D007559:Ivermectin; D015766:Albendazole; D004049:Diethylcarbamazine