Data on selected antimalarial drug resistance markers in Zambia

Lungowe Sitali; Mulenga C Mwenda; John M Miller; Daniel J Bridges; Moonga B Hawela; Busiku Hamainza; Mutinta Mudenda-Chilufya; Elizabeth Chizema-Kawesha; Rachel Daniels; Thomas P Eisele; Audun H Nerland; James Chipeta; Bernt Lindtjorn

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2020.106650

Data on selected antimalarial drug resistance markers in Zambia

Data Brief. 2020 Dec 13:34:106650. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2020.106650. eCollection 2021 Feb.

Authors

Lungowe Sitali^{1

2

3}, Mulenga C Mwenda⁴, John M Miller⁴, Daniel J Bridges⁴, Moonga B Hawela⁵, Busiku Hamainza⁵, Mutinta Mudenda-Chilufya⁵, Elizabeth Chizema-Kawesha⁶, Rachel Daniels⁷, Thomas P Eisele⁸, Audun H Nerland⁹, James Chipeta^{3

10}, Bernt Lindtjorn¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for International Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
² University of Zambia, School of Health Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Lusaka, Zambia.
³ School of Medicine and University Teaching Hospital Malaria Research Unit, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.
⁴ PATH-Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa, National Malaria Elimination Centre, Ministry of Health, Lusaka, Zambia.
⁵ National Malaria Elimination Centre, Ministry of Health, Lusaka, Zambia.
⁶ End Malaria Council, African Leaders Malaria Alliance, National Malaria Elimination Centre, Ministry of Health, Lusaka, Zambia.
⁷ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Centre for Applied Malaria Research and Evaluation, Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana.
⁹ Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Norway.
¹⁰ University of Zambia School of Medicine, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Lusaka, Zambia.

Abstract

This article describes data on selected resistance markers for antimalarial drugs used in Zambia. Antimalarial drug resistance has hindered the progress in the control and elimination of malaria. Blood samples were collected during a cross-sectional household survey, conducted during the peak malaria transmission, April to May of 2017. Dried blood spots were collected during the survey and transported to a laboratory for analysis. The analysed included polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by high resolution melt (HRM) for mutations associated with Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance in the Plasmodium falciparum dihydrofolate reductase (Pfdhfr) and P. falciparum dihydropteroate synthase (Pfdhps) genes. Mutations associated with artemether-lumefantrine resistance in falciparum multi-drug resistance gene 1 (Pfmdr1) were also assessed using PCR and HRM analysis, whereas the P. falciparum Kelch 13 (PfK13) gene was assessed using nested PCR followed by amplicon sequencing.

Keywords: Malaria; Mutations; Plasmodium falciparum; Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine; Zambia.