II-79Posters
GLUTATHIONE S-TRANSFERASE T1 NULL GENOTYPE –
A PROTECTIVE FACTOR IN UNCOMPLICATED MALARIA?
Cavaco I1, Martensson A2, Bhattarai A2, Ribeiro V1, Björkman A2, Gil JP1, 2
1 Center of Molecular and Structural Biomedicine/IBB, Universidade do Algarve, Gambelas, Portugal
2 Malaria Research Laboratory, Unit of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Karolinska
University Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; isacavaco@gmail.com
Background Oxidative stress plays an important role in malaria pathology. The oxidative stress inside
the erythrocyte is determinant to the progression of the disease and so are the enzymes
related to the antioxidant system. In this context, we decided to study known polymor-
phisms in Glutathione S-transferase (GST) as these enzymes are part of the cell defence
mechanism against reactive oxygen metabolites. In particular, we have concentrated on
GSTT1 because it is highly expressed in erythrocytes, so the presence of the GSTT1 isoform
would protect the parasite against oxidative stress during the erythrocytic stage. As a con-
trol, we also analysed GSTM1 in the same group of patients, since it is not expressed in
erythrocytes.
Results In this study we analysed GSTM1 and GSTT1 gene deletions in Zanzibar islands. The anal-
ysis was performed in a group of patients with uncomplicated malaria (n = 1515) and in a
control group of patients without P. falciparum (n = 370). The results show that GSTT1 null
genotype is present in a significantly higher frequency (45.4 %) in patients without malar-
ia when compared with malaria patients (21.5 %) (OR = 0.328 (0.259–0.417)). For GSTM1
we didn’t observe significant differences between the two groups (37 % vs 36.5 % – OR =
0.978 (0.773–1.24)).
Conclusion The results obtained suggest that GSTT1 may be an important factor in malaria pathology
since the lacking of the GSTT1 gene revealed to be a protective factor in uncomplicated
malaria.