Genetic variability in Plasmodium vivax aldolase gene in Korean isolates and the sensitivity of the Binax Now malaria test.

Introduction of rapid malaria diagnostic tests (RDT) initiated numerous field evaluations in various epidemiologic settings. But the efficiency of some RTD kits based on aldolase raised reservations for direct implementation of RDT into clinical settings. We performed Binax Now malaria test in 84 Korean Plasmodium vivax isolates and compared it with the traditional Giemsa stain microscopy test as the reference standard.

Sequence polymorphisms of Plasmodium vivax ookinete surface proteins (Pvs25 and Pvs28) from clinical isolates in Korea.

The Ookinete surface proteins of Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax), Pvs25 and Pvs28, were candidates for the transmission blocking vaccine (TBV), which exhibited great antigenic diversities among various isolates. Polymorphisms of these genes in the isolates from Republic of Korea (ROK) were analysed, which provided valuable baseline data for the field trials of TBV-based vaccines.

Emergence of new alleles of the MSP-3alpha gene in Plasmodium vivax isolates from Korea.

Nucleotide sequence analysis of the Plasmodium vivax PvMSP-3alpha gene was conducted on blood from 143 malaria patients admitted to Korea University Medical Center from 1996 to 2007 in the Republic of Korea (ROK). From 1996 to 2002, the PvMSP-3alpha alleles were of two types, SKOR-67 (2.53 kb) and SKOR-69 (1.