Genetic Structure and Diversity of Plasmodium falciparum Merozoite Surface Proteins 1 and 2 among Children below 5 Years in Delta State, Nigeria

Background: Africa remains the epicenter of malaria, of which Nigeria is the country with the highest burden of the disease. The present global malaria resistant challenges call for improving pharmacogenomics, updating genomic reference panels and validating malaria biomarkers. This research evaluated the genetic structure and diversity of Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein ( msp ) 1 and 2 among children under 5 years of age in the selected areas of Delta State, in southern Nigeria. Methods: A total of 690 participants were recruited, and P. falciparum deoxyribonucleic acid was extracted from 86 malaria-positive samples due to low parasite density. Allelic genotyping of msp1 and msp2 was evaluated based on polymerase chain reaction, electrophoresis, and visualized using ultraviolet-trans illumination gel system. Results: Polyclonal infection was the most prevalent form of infections for msp1 and msp2 which were MAD20+RO33+K1 (67.4%) and 3D7+FC27 (90%), respectively. The predominant alleles for msp1 and msp2 were RO33 (36.3%) and FC27 (53.4%), respectively. In addition, there was no significant difference in the allelic composition between the males and the females in the study population. However, the multiplicity of infection for msp1 and msp2 was 1.10 and 1.08, respectively, whereas the corresponding heterozygosity values were 0.67 and 0.50, respectively. Conclusion: Thus, this study presents a significant degree of genetically middling heterozygous alleles with a typical high transmission rate of P. falciparum infection in Delta State, Nigeria. These findings highlight the necessity of designing and formulating personalized and regionalized anti-malaria remedies.