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To obtain the genetic structure of Plasmodium vivax populations in the northern and southern malaria-endemic areas in Iran, which differ in endemicity, sequence diversity in the variable block 5 and the C-terminal part of P. vivax merozoite surface protein 1 (Pvmsp 1) was analyzed. The variable block 5 fragment from 52 northern and 94 southern isolates was amplified and sequenced. Type 1, type 2, and recombinant type 3 allelic variants were found in both northern and southern isolates, with type 1 predominant in parasites from the north and type 2 in those from the south. A total of 7 and 27 distinct variants were detected among northern and southern isolates, respectively. A single variant predominated (71%) in the northern isolates, whereas variants were evenly distributed among southern isolates, with only two exceeding 10%. Thus, parasites from the southern malaria-endemic area were more polymorphic than those circulating in the northern area, where malaria is a re-emerging disease. Sequence alignments showed that although some variants were found only in northern or southern isolates, some were common to both and had also been observed in parasites from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Thailand, Bangladesh, and China. The Pvmsp 1 fragment corresponding to the C-terminal region was also amplified and the sequences derived from 20 northern and 50 southern isolates were identical. This high degree of conservation reinforces the potential of this polypeptide fragment for inclusion in synthetic vaccines being developed against P. vivax.
Received May 12, 2005. Accepted for publication October 31, 2005.
Acknowledgments: We thank the Malaria Division, Center for Diseases Management and Control, Iran, especially Dr. A. Raeisi, for their cooperation; Dr. M. T. Tabatabai (Zahedan University of Medical Sciences), the staff in the Public Health Department of Sistan and Baluchistan, Dr. Medhi Zand and Mr. Khodadad Gorgij (Chabahar District), Dr. Naseri Nejad (Hormozgan Province), Mr. Sfandiar Mahmoudi (Kerman Province), and Dr. Shahnam Arshi and Mr. Kourosh Emdadi (Pars-Abad and Ardebil) for assistance in collecting blood samples; and S. Gholizadeh for editing the figures.
Financial support: This study was supported in part by grants from the United National Development Program/World Bank/World Health Organization Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (No. A30133) and the Pasteur Institute of Iran (No. 210).
* Address correspondence to Sedigheh Zakeri, Malaria Research Group, Biotechnology Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: zakeris{at}yahoo.com or azad{at}institute.pasteur.ac.ir
Authors’ addresses: Sedigheh Zakeri, Akram Abouie Mehrizi, Shadi Mamaghani, Somayyeh Noorizadeh, and Navid Dinparast Djadid, Malaria Research Group, Biotechnology Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Pasteur Avenue, P.O. Box 13164, Tehran, Iran, Telephone: 98-21-648-0780, Fax: 98-21-646-5132, E-mails: zakeris{at}yahoo.com and azad{at}institute.pasteur.ac.ir. Georges Snounou, Parasitologie Comparée et Modèles Expérimentaux, Unite Scientifique Museum 307, Centre de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Federatif de Recherche 101, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CP52, 61 Rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 5, France, Telephone: 33-1-40-79-34-98, Fax: 33-1-40-79-34-99.
Reprint requests: Sedigheh Zakeri, Malaria Research Group, Biotechnology Department, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.
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