Table 2.

Checklist for the design of future studies on molecular markers

Key points	Action	Cornerstones
Treatment	Use standard drug regimen	WHO guidelines
Patient follow-up	Adapt follow-up to the drug tested	WHO guidelines
Prevalence of mutations	Do not test SNP close to fixation	< 50%
Rate of therapeutic failure	Do not test drugs with high failure rate	> 25%
Level of immunity	Clearly define the target population	< 5 years old/all ages; depending on the transmission level
Level of transmission	Genotype for multiplicity of infection	MMV-WHO 2007 guidelines
Level of transmission	Genotype for reinfection/recrudescence	MMV-WHO 2007 guidelines
Gene polymorphism	Genotype all known alleles of target gene	Provide separate and cumulative analysis for codons tested
Data report	Link each patient (adequate or failure) with point mutation or wild type	Provide nb. of: Adequate wild-type Adequate mutated Failure wild-type Failure mutated
Multi-arms study	Do not aggregate data from different areas, drug regimen, and study periods. Do not mix retrospective/prospective studies	Provide complete data and link for each arm of the study
Quality control	PCR for diagnosis and genotyping	WWARN reference labs