| dc.description.abstract | Malaria is a major health problem in tropical countries including Indonesia. The
most deadly agent is Plasmodium falciparum. In P. falciparum infection, PfEMP1 is supposed
to play an important role in the pathogenesis of malaria. PfEMP1 is encoded by var gene
family, it is a polymorphic protein where the extra-cellular portion contains of three distinct
binding domains: Duffy binding-like (DBL), Cysteine-rich interdomain regions (CIDR) and
C2. PfEMP1 varies in domain composition and binding specificity. The study explored the
charact eristic of Indonesian DBL2β-var genes and investigated its role to the malaria outcome.
Twenty blood samples from clinically mild to severe malaria patients in Jember, East Java
were collected for DNA extraction. Diagnosis was confirmed by Giemsa-stained thick blood
smear. PCR was conducted using specific primer targeting on the full-length of DBL2β and
resulted approximately single band of 1,7 kb in a sample. This band was observed only from
severe malaria sample. Sequence analysis directly from PCR product showed 74-99%
similarities with previous sequences in Gene Bank. In conclusion, the DBL2β domain of
vargene of Indonesian isolates was 1603 nucleotides in length and there was a possible
association of the existence of DBL2β domain with the severity of malaria outcome. | en_US |
