Isaac Okezie Godwin1 , Ifeoma Mercy Ekejindu1 , George Uchenna Eleje2 , Alfred Friday Ehiaghe1 , Bright Chukwuebuka Unaeze1 and George Oche Ambrose3 *
The Plasmodium vivax dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and dihydropteroate synthetase (DHPS) are enzymes of central importance in parasite metabolism. The dhfr and dhps gene mutations are known to be associated with sulphadoxine/ pyrimethamine (SP) resistance. The aim of this study is to investigate the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with these mutations and to determine their nature and distributions. A total number of 390 pregnant women were recruited, 336 of them were taking SP while 54 of the pregnant women were using other anti-malaria drugs for treatment of malaria. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used to characterize the specie of the isolated plasmodium while Sanger sequencing method of molecular genotyping was adopted for the subjection of the Plasmodium to resistance studies using dhfr and dhps genes to identify possible mutations. We observed that about 64.86% sites of dhfr gene and 91.9% sites of dhps gene are polymorphic. Nonsynonymous mutation and biallelic polymorphisms were associated with the dhfr gene, which causes resistance to SP by Plasmodium vivax, since such mutation affects the coding sequence.
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