High heritability of malaria parasite clearance rate indicates a genetic basis for artemisinin resistance in western Cambodia

In Western Cambodia malaria parasites clear slowly from the blood following treatment with artemisinin derivatives, but it is unclear whether this results from parasite, host, or other factors specific to this population. We measured heritability of clearance rate (CR), by examining patients infected with identical or non-identical parasite genotypes, using methods analogous to human twin studies. A substantial proportion (56-58%) of the variation in CR is explained by parasite genetics. This has two important implications: (1) selection with artemisinin derivatives will tend to drive resistance spread, (2) because heritability is high, genes underlying CR may be identified by genome-wide association.