High resolution melting: a useful field-deployable method to measure dhfr and dhps drug resistance in both highly and lowly endemic Plasmodium populations

Background Emergence and spread of drug resistance to every anti-malarial used to date, creates an urgent need for development of sensitive, specific and field-deployable molecular tools for detection and surveillance of validated drug resistance markers. Such tools would allow early detection of mutations in resistance loci. The aim of this study was to compare common population signatures and drug resistance marker frequencies between two populations with different levels of malaria endemicity and history of anti-malarial drug use: Tanzania and Senegal. This was accomplished by implementing a high resolution melting assay to study molecular markers of drug resistance as compared to polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR/RFLP) methodology.