Surveillance of Genetic Variations Associated with Antimalarial Resistance of Plasmodium falciparum Isolates from Returned Migrant Workers in Wuhan, Central China.

Antimalarial drug resistance developed in has become a problem for malaria control. Evaluation of drug resistance is the first step for effective malaria control. In this study, we investigated the gene mutations of using blood samples from returned Chinese migrant workers in order to identify drug resistance-associated molecular markers. These workers returned from Africa and Southeast Asia (SEA) during 2011 to 2016. Polymorphisms in , , and genes and the haplotype patterns of Pfcrt and Pfmdr1 were analyzed. The results showed the presence of four haplotypes of Pfcrt codons 72 to 76, including CVMNK (wild type), VMN and CV (mutation types), and CV M N K (mixed type), with 50.57%, 1.14%, 25.00%, and 23.30% prevalence, respectively. For Pfmdr1, N86 (22.28%) and Y184 (60.01%) were the main prevalent mutations (mutations are underlined). The prevalence of mutation at position 550, 561, 575, and 589 of K13-propeller were 1.09%, 0.54%, 0.54%, and 0.54%, respectively. These data suggested that Pfcrt, Pfmdr1, and K13-propeller polymorphisms are potential markers to assess drug resistance of in China, Africa, and SEA.