Modelling primaquine-induced haemolysis in G6PD deficiency

  1. James Watson  Is a corresponding author
  2. Walter RJ Taylor
  3. Didier Menard
  4. Sim Kheng
  5. Nicholas J White
  1. Mahidol University, Thailand
  2. Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Cambodia
  3. National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, Cambodia

Abstract

Primaquine is the only drug available to prevent relapse in vivax malaria. The main adverse effect of primaquine is erythrocyte age and dose dependent acute haemolytic anaemia in individuals with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDd). As testing for G6PDd is often unavailable this limits the use of primaquine for radical cure. A compartmental model of the dynamics of red blood cell production and destruction was designed to characterise primaquine-induced haemolysis using a holistic Bayesian analysis of all published data and was used to predict a safer alternative to the currently recommended once weekly 0.75mg/kg regimen for G6PDd. The model suggests that a step-wise increase in daily administered primaquine dose would be relatively safe in G6PDd. If this is confirmed then were this regimen to be recommended for radical cure patients would not require testing for G6PDd in areas where G6PD Viangchan or milder variants are prevalent.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. James Watson

    Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
    For correspondence
    jwatowatson@gmail.com
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5524-0325
  2. Walter RJ Taylor

    Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Didier Menard

    Unité d'Epidémiologie Moléculaire du Paludisme, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1357-4495
  4. Sim Kheng

    National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Nicholas J White

    Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1897-1978

Funding

Wellcome

  • James Watson
  • Walter RJ Taylor
  • Nicholas J White

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Prabhat Jha, Saint Michael's Hospital, Canada

Publication history

  1. Received: November 10, 2016
  2. Accepted: January 31, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: February 3, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: February 28, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Watson et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. James Watson
  2. Walter RJ Taylor
  3. Didier Menard
  4. Sim Kheng
  5. Nicholas J White
(2017)
Modelling primaquine-induced haemolysis in G6PD deficiency
eLife 6:e23061.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23061

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