Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.

Multiple infections of genetically distinct clones of the same Plasmodium species are common in many malaria endemic settings. Mean multiplicity of infection (MOI) and the proportion of polyclonal infections are often reported as surrogate marker of transmission intensity, yet the relationship with...

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Main Authors: Luis Lopez, Cristian Koepfli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249382&type=printable
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author Luis Lopez
Cristian Koepfli
author_facet Luis Lopez
Cristian Koepfli
author_sort Luis Lopez
collection DOAJ
description Multiple infections of genetically distinct clones of the same Plasmodium species are common in many malaria endemic settings. Mean multiplicity of infection (MOI) and the proportion of polyclonal infections are often reported as surrogate marker of transmission intensity, yet the relationship with traditional measures such as parasite prevalence is not well understood. We have searched Pubmed for articles on P. falciparum and P. vivax multiplicity, and compared the proportion of polyclonal infections and mean MOI to population prevalence. The impact of the genotyping method, number of genotyping markers, method for diagnosis (microscopy/RDT vs. PCR), presence of clinical symptoms, age, geographic region, and year of sample collection on multiplicity indices were assessed. For P. falciparum, 153 studies met inclusion criteria, yielding 275 individual data points and 33,526 genotyped individuals. The proportion of polyclonal infections ranged from 0-96%, and mean MOI from 1-6.1. For P. vivax, 54 studies met inclusion criteria, yielding 115 data points and 13,325 genotyped individuals. The proportion of polyclonal infections ranged from 0-100%, and mean MOI from 1-3.8. For both species, the proportion of polyclonal infections ranged from very low to close to 100% at low prevalence, while at high prevalence it was always high. Each percentage point increase in prevalence resulted in a 0.34% increase in the proportion of polyclonal P. falciparum infections (P<0.001), and a 0.78% increase in the proportion of polyclonal P. vivax infections (P<0.001). In multivariable analysis, higher prevalence, typing multiple markers, diagnosis of infections by PCR, and sampling in Africa were found to result in a higher proportion of P. falciparum polyclonal infections. For P. vivax, prevalence, year of study, typing multiple markers, and geographic region were significant predictors. In conclusion, polyclonal infections are frequently present in all settings, but the association between multiplicity and prevalence is weak.
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spelling doaj.art-c64bb19f699e47b687266f1fae6ec56a2025-03-03T05:33:40ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-01166e024938210.1371/journal.pone.0249382Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.Luis LopezCristian KoepfliMultiple infections of genetically distinct clones of the same Plasmodium species are common in many malaria endemic settings. Mean multiplicity of infection (MOI) and the proportion of polyclonal infections are often reported as surrogate marker of transmission intensity, yet the relationship with traditional measures such as parasite prevalence is not well understood. We have searched Pubmed for articles on P. falciparum and P. vivax multiplicity, and compared the proportion of polyclonal infections and mean MOI to population prevalence. The impact of the genotyping method, number of genotyping markers, method for diagnosis (microscopy/RDT vs. PCR), presence of clinical symptoms, age, geographic region, and year of sample collection on multiplicity indices were assessed. For P. falciparum, 153 studies met inclusion criteria, yielding 275 individual data points and 33,526 genotyped individuals. The proportion of polyclonal infections ranged from 0-96%, and mean MOI from 1-6.1. For P. vivax, 54 studies met inclusion criteria, yielding 115 data points and 13,325 genotyped individuals. The proportion of polyclonal infections ranged from 0-100%, and mean MOI from 1-3.8. For both species, the proportion of polyclonal infections ranged from very low to close to 100% at low prevalence, while at high prevalence it was always high. Each percentage point increase in prevalence resulted in a 0.34% increase in the proportion of polyclonal P. falciparum infections (P<0.001), and a 0.78% increase in the proportion of polyclonal P. vivax infections (P<0.001). In multivariable analysis, higher prevalence, typing multiple markers, diagnosis of infections by PCR, and sampling in Africa were found to result in a higher proportion of P. falciparum polyclonal infections. For P. vivax, prevalence, year of study, typing multiple markers, and geographic region were significant predictors. In conclusion, polyclonal infections are frequently present in all settings, but the association between multiplicity and prevalence is weak.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249382&type=printable
spellingShingle Luis Lopez
Cristian Koepfli
Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.
PLoS ONE
title Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.
title_full Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.
title_fullStr Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.
title_full_unstemmed Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.
title_short Systematic review of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections: Impact of prevalence, study population characteristics, and laboratory procedures.
title_sort systematic review of plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax polyclonal infections impact of prevalence study population characteristics and laboratory procedures
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249382&type=printable
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