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COMPARISON OF PCR-RFLP AND GENESCAN–BASED GENOTYPING FOR ANALYZING INFECTION DYNAMICS OF PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM

Parameters describing the infection dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum are important determinants of the potential impact of interventions and are potential outcome measurements for malaria intervention trials. Low parasite densities, periodic sequestration of parasites, and the presence of multiple concurrent infections make it essential to use molecular techniques to estimate the force of infection and duration of infections in endemic areas. We now compare two approaches for tracking individual genotypes of the highly polymorphic merozoite surface protein 2: 1) fluorescence-labeled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and GeneScan-sizing and 2) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). We analyze samples from a longitudinal field study in Ghana and use statistical approaches that allow for imperfect detectability. The two methods gave broadly similar estimates of parasite dynamics, but GeneScan is more precise and can achieve a higher throughput. The analysis of parasite dynamics indicated an average duration of infection of 210 days by GeneScan versus 152 days by PCR-RFLP in the study population in Kassena-Nankana, Northern Ghana. This reflects the good performance of GeneScan-based genotyping for studies of parasite infection dynamics.

Received July 11, 2005. Accepted for publication December 8, 2005.

Acknowledgments: We thank the community members of the KND, especially the participants and the parents of the children consenting on their behalf, the staff of the Navrongo Health Research Center for their field assistance, especially Lucas Amenga-Etego and Victor Asoala, and Béatrice Glinz-Szára and André Tiaden for genotyping.

Financial support: This work was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation Grant 3300C0-105994).

^* Address correspondence to Ingrid Felger, Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, PO Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: ingrid.felger{at}unibas.ch

Authors’ addresses: Nicole Falk, Nicolas Maire, Wilson Sama, Tom Smith, Hans-Peter Beck, and Ingrid Felger, Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, PO Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland, E-mails: nicole.falk{at}stud.unibas.ch, nicolas.maire{at}unibas.ch, Wilson.Sama{at}unibas.ch, Thomas-A.Smith{at}unibas.ch, hans-peter.beck{at}unibas.ch, and ingrid.felger{at}unibas.ch. Seth Owusu-Agyei, Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana Health Service, PO Box 200, Kintampo, Ghana, E-mail: seth.owusu-agyei{at}ghana-khrc.org.

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