title: Travellers as sentinels: Assaying the worldwide distribution of polymorphisms associated with artemisinin combination therapy resistance in Plasmodium falciparum using malaria cases imported into Scotland.
abstract: There is growing evidence that Plasmodium falciparum parasites in southeastern Asia have developed resistance to artemisinin combination therapy. The resistance phenotype has recently been shown to be associated with four single nucleotide polymorphisms in the parasite's genome. We assessed the prevalence of two of these single nucleotide polymorphisms in P. falciparum parasites imported into Scotland between 2009 and 2012, and in additional field samples from six countries in southeastern Asia. We analysed 28 samples from 11 African countries, and 25 samples from nine countries in Asia/southeastern Asia/Oceania. Single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with artemisinin combination therapy resistance were not observed outside Thailand and Cambodia.
authors.affiliation: Malaria Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Carol W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Hunja
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.forename: Pedro E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lumsden
authors.forename: Sheila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Rashid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aman
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Culleton
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000494:pharmacology*; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001208:Asia; D004351:Drug Resistance; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000469:parasitology*; D058974:Phylogeography; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012606:Scotland; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D014195:Travel
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D037621:Artemisinins; C031327:artemisinin
keywords: ACT; Drug resistance; Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum