Baseline Ex Vivo and Molecular Responses of Plasmodium faciparum isolates to Piperaquine before Implementation of Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine in Senegal.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, which was registered in 2017 in Senegal, is not currently used as the first-line treatment against uncomplicated malaria. A total of 6.6 to 17.1% of P. falciparum isolates collected in Dakar in 2013-2015 showed ex vivo reduced susceptibility to piperaquine. Neither the exonuclease-E415G mutation nor the copy number variation of the Plasmepsin II gene ( Pfpm2 ), associated with piperaquine resistance in Cambodia, was detected in Senegalese parasites.