Evaluation of the intra- and inter-specific genetic variability of Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase.

Arthur M. Talman (1, 2) , Linda Duval (1) , Eric Legrand (3) , Véronique Hubert (4) , Seiha Yen (1) , David R. Bell (5) , Jacques Le Bras (6) , Frédéric Ariey (1) , Sandrine Houze (6)

1 Institut Pasteur du Cambodge
2 Division of Cell and Molecular Biology
3 Institut Pasteur de la Guyane
4 Centre National de Référence du Paludisme
5 Malaria and other Vector-borne and parasitic diseases
6 Centre National de Référence du Paludisme

BACKGROUND: Malaria diagnosis is vital to efficient control programmes and the recent advent of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) provides a reliable and simple diagnostic method. However a characterization of the efficiency of these tests and the proteins they detect is needed to maximize RDT sensitivity. METHODS: Plasmodial lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) gene of wild isolates of the four human species of Plasmodium from a variety of malaria endemic settings were sequenced and analysed. RESULTS: No variation in nucleotide was found within Plasmodium falciparum, synonymous mutations were found for Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium. vivax; and three different types of amino acid sequence were found for Plasmodium ovale. Conserved and variable regions were identified within each species. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that antigen variability is unlikely to explain variability in performance of RDTs detecting pLDH from cases of P. falciparum, P. vivax or P. malariae malaria, but may contribute to poor detection of P. ovale.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Parasitology

Arthur M. Talman, Linda Duval, Eric Legrand, Véronique Hubert, Seiha Yen, et al.. Evaluation of the intra- and inter-specific genetic variability of Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase.. Malaria Journal, 2007, 6, pp.140. ⟨10.1186/1475-2875-6-140⟩. ⟨pasteur-00590985⟩