Cheryl C.Y. LohRossarin SuwanaruskYan Quan LeeKitti W.K. ChanKit Ying ChoyLaurent RéniaBruce RussellMartin J. LearFrancois H. NostenKevin S.W. TanLarry M.C. ChowYong Loo Lin School of MedicineAgency for Science, Technology and Research, SingaporeNUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and EngineeringHong Kong Polytechnic UniversityTohoku UniversityNuffield Department of Clinical MedicineMahidol UniversityUniversity of Oxford2018-11-092018-11-092014-10-24PLoS ONE. Vol.9, No.10 (2014)193262032-s2.0-84908425701https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/32971©2014 Loh et al. Chloroquine was a cheap, extremely effective drug against Plasmodium falciparum until resistance arose. One approach to reversing resistance is the inhibition of chloroquine efflux from its site of action, the parasite digestive vacuole. Chloroquine accumulation studies have traditionally relied on radiolabelled chloroquine, which poses several challenges. There is a need for development of a safe and biologically relevant substitute. We report here a commercially-available green fluorescent chloroquine-BODIPY conjugate, LynxTag-CQ GREEN, as a proxy for chloroquine accumulation. This compound localized to the digestive vacuole of the parasite as observed under confocal microscopy, and inhibited growth of chloroquine-sensitive strain 3D7 more extensively than in the resistant strains 7G8 and K1. Microplate reader measurements indicated suppression of LynxTag-CQGREEN efflux after pretreatment of parasites with known reversal agents. Microsomes carrying either sensitiveor resistant-type PfCRT were assayed for uptake; resistant-type PfCRT exhibited increased accumulation of LynxTag-CQGREEN, which was suppressed by pretreatment with known chemosensitizers. Eight laboratory strains and twelve clinical isolates were sequenced for PfCRT and Pgh1 haplotypes previously reported to contribute to drug resistance, and pfmdr1 copy number and chloroquine IC50s were determined. These data were compared with LynxTag-CQGREEN uptake/fluorescence by multiple linear regression to identify genetic correlates of uptake. Uptake of the compound correlated with the logIC50 of chloroquine, more weakly, a mutation in Pgh1, F1226Y.Mahidol UniversityAgricultural and Biological SciencesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyArticleSCOPUS10.1371/journal.pone.0110800