Artemisinin Based Combination Therapies and Pfmdr1 as a Marker for Monitoring Antimalarial Resistance in Thailand

Abstract

An emergence of antimalarial drug resistant is now becoming a threaten problem of public health worldwide. Artemisinin based therapies (ACT) have been generally recommended for malaria drug policy in most countries. This review stages the problems of drug resistance in malaria parasites and emphasizes the use of molecular makers especially, Pfmdr1 gene point mutation and Pfmdr1 gene copy number as a surveillance tool for monitoring ACT resistance.