3 research outputs found
Microsatellite characterization of Plasmodium falciparum from symptomatic and non-symptomatic infections from the Western Amazon reveals the existence of non-symptomatic infection-associated genotypes
In Western Amazon areas with perennial malaria transmission, long term
residents frequently develop partial immunity to malarial infection
caused either by Plasmodium falciparum or P. vivax, resulting in a
considerable number of non-symptomatically infected individuals. For
yet unknown reasons, these individuals sporadically develop symptomatic
malaria. In order to identify if determined parasite genotypes, defined
by a combination of eleven microsatellite markers, were associated to
different outcomes symptomatic or asymptomatic malaria we analyzed
infecting P. falciparum parasites in a suburban riverine population.
Despite of detecting a high degree of diversity in the analyzed
samples, several microsatellite marker alleles appeared accumulated in
parasites from non-symptomatic infections. This result may be
interpreted that a number of microsatellites, which are not directly
related to antigenic features, could be associated to the outcome of
malarial infection. The result may also point to a low frequency of
recombinatorial events which otherwise would dissociate genes under
strong immune pressure from the relatively neutral microsatellite loci