Emergence of chloroquine resistance in Cambodian Plasmodium vivax threatens the entire malaria control strategy in the region. In collaboration with the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, we will collect blood samples from 280 individuals infected with P. vivax and use next generation sequencing to investigate the patterns of genetic diversity across the entire P. vivax genome. First, we will conduct population genomic analyses to characterize the structure of the parasite population and better understand how and how fast drug resistance alleles can spread across the country. We will also use these data to identify loci under positive selection which could be responsible for drug resistance. Second, we will determine drug susceptibility of the P. vivax strains present in 100 vivax malaria patients using a combination of in vivo and ex vivo approaches. We will then conduct a genome-wide association study to identify genetic polymorphisms statistically associated with drug resistance in P. vivax. Our findings will improve our understanding of drug resistance in this neglected human malaria parasite and have the potential to significantly advance vivax malaria control.

Public Health Relevance

Extensive use of antimalarial drugs in the past decades has led to the emergence of resistant Plasmodium vivax parasites which greatly complicates malaria elimination. We will combine modern fieldwork with state-of- the-art genomic analyses to understand how drug resistance can spread in a population and identify the genetic bases of this resistance.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AI103228-06
Application #
9254424
Study Section
Genetic Variation and Evolution Study Section (GVE)
Program Officer
Joy, Deirdre A
Project Start
2013-05-13
Project End
2019-04-30
Budget Start
2017-05-01
Budget End
2019-04-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland Baltimore
Department
Microbiology/Immun/Virology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
188435911
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21201
Roesch, Camille; Popovici, Jean; Bin, Sophalai et al. (2018) Genetic diversity in two Plasmodium vivax protein ligands for reticulocyte invasion. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 12:e0006555
Popovici, Jean; Pierce-Friedrich, Lindsey; Kim, Saorin et al. (2018) Recrudescence, reinfection or relapse? A more rigorous framework to assess chloroquine efficacy for vivax malaria. J Infect Dis :
Popovici, Jean; Vantaux, Amelie; Primault, Lyse et al. (2018) Therapeutic and Transmission-Blocking ?Efficacy of Dihydroartemisinin/Piperaquine and Chloroquine against Plasmodium vivax Malaria, Cambodia. Emerg Infect Dis 24:1516-1519
Popovici, Jean; Friedrich, Lindsey R; Kim, Saorin et al. (2018) Genomic Analyses Reveal the Common Occurrence and Complexity of Plasmodium vivax Relapses in Cambodia. MBio 9:
Kim, Adam; Popovici, Jean; Vantaux, Amélie et al. (2017) Characterization of P. vivax blood stage transcriptomes from field isolates reveals similarities among infections and complex gene isoforms. Sci Rep 7:7761
Friedrich, Lindsey R; Popovici, Jean; Kim, Saorin et al. (2016) Complexity of Infection and Genetic Diversity in Cambodian Plasmodium vivax. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10:e0004526
Auburn, Sarah; Serre, David; Pearson, Richard D et al. (2016) Genomic Analysis Reveals a Common Breakpoint in Amplifications of the Plasmodium vivax Multidrug Resistance 1 Locus in Thailand. J Infect Dis 214:1235-42
Popovici, Jean; Kao, Sokheng; Eal, Leanghor et al. (2015) Reduced polymorphism in the Kelch propeller domain in Plasmodium vivax isolates from Cambodia. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 59:730-3
Chan, Ernest R; Barnwell, John W; Zimmerman, Peter A et al. (2015) Comparative analysis of field-isolate and monkey-adapted Plasmodium vivax genomes. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9:e0003566
Hester, James; Chan, Ernest R; Menard, Didier et al. (2013) De novo assembly of a field isolate genome reveals novel Plasmodium vivax erythrocyte invasion genes. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 7:e2569