| Malaria in pregnancy (MIP) causes maternal anemia, low birthweight, and can lead to mortality in mothers and babies. In malaria endemic area, primigravidae are more susceptible to malaria infection than multigravidae. This adhesion has an important role in MiP in which massive sequestration of infected erythrocytes is found in the placenta. Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) mediates adhesion of infected erythrocytes to chondroitin sulfate A (CSA). PIEMP1 is encoded by a multigene family, var. Antibodies that inhibit adhesion to CSA are associated with protection to malaria infection and this reduces the number of low birthweight babies. The current study is aimed to detect the dominant var gene transcript, var2CSA, a dominant var gene known to encode PfEMP1 mediating adhesion to CSA, by Quantitative Reverse Transcription PCR (Q. RT-PCR). The expression of var2CSA is measured from infected erythrocyte collected from placenta, peripheral blood, as well as from infected erythrocyte of non-pregnant women. The level of var2cSA is normalized with a housekeeping gene, skeleton binding protein (sbp). Results demonstrated that placental isolates have higher levels of var2CSA than peripheral samples and infected erythrocytes collected from nonpregnant individuals. The results contribute to efforts to develop vaccine targeting pregnant women. |