ABSTRACT
In India, chloroquine has been replaced by a combination of artesunate and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (AS-SP) for uncomplicated
P. falciparum
malaria. Other available combinations, artemether-lumefantrine (AM-LF) and artesunate-mefloquine (AS-MQ), not included in the national program, are widely used by private practitioners. Little is known about the therapeutic efficacy of these artemisinin combinations and the prevalence of molecular markers associated with antimalarial drug resistance. A total of 157 patients with
P. falciparum
monoinfection were recruited and randomized into three study groups (AS-SP, AM-LF, and AS-MQ). All patients were followed up for 42 days to study the clinical and parasitological responses according to the WHO protocol (2009). We assessed the polymorphism of the
pfATPase6
,
pfcrt
,
pfdhfr
, and
pfdhps
genes by the DNA-sequencing method. The PCR-corrected therapeutic efficacies of AS-SP, AM-LF, and AS-MQ were 90.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.793 to 0.969), 95.9% (95% CI, 0.860 to 0.995), and 100% (95% CI, 0.927 to 1.00), respectively. No specific mutational pattern was observed in the
pfATPase6
gene. All isolates had a K76T mutation in the
pfcrt
gene. In the
pfdhfr-pfdhps
genotype, quadruple mutation was frequent, and quintuple mutation was documented in 6.3% of
P. falciparum
isolates. The significant failure rate of AS-SP (9.5%), although within the limit (10%) for drug policy change, was due to SP failure because of prevailing mutations in
pfdhfr
, I
51
R
59
N
108
, with
pfdhps
, G
437
and/or E
540
. The efficacy of this ACT needs periodic monitoring. Artemether-lumefantrine and artesunate-mefloquine are effective alternatives to the artesunate-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine combination.