Baseline Ex Vivo and Molecular Responses of Plasmodium falciparum Isolates to Piperaquine before Implementation of Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine in Senegal

Abstract

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, which was registered in 2017 in Senegal, is not currently used as the first-line treatment against uncomplicated malaria. A total of 6.6% to 17.1% of P. falciparum isolates collected in Dakar in 2013 to 2015 showed ex vivo-reduced susceptibility to piperaquine. Neither the exonuclease E415G mutation nor the copy number variation of the plasmepsin II gene (Pfpm2), associated with piperaquine resistance in Cambodia, was detected in Senegalese parasites.