Malaria is a major health problem in tropical countries including Indonesia. The most deadly agent is Plasmodium falciparum. In P. falciparum infection, PfEMP1 is supposed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of malaria. PfEMP1 is encoded by var gene family, it is a polymorphic protein where the extra-cellular portion contains of three distinct binding domains: Duffy binding-like (DBL), Cysteine-rich interdomain regions (CIDR) and C2. PfEMP1 varies in domain composition and binding specificity. The study explored the characteristic of Indonesian DBL2β-var genes and investigated its role to the malaria outcome. Twenty blood samples from clinically mild to severe malaria patients in Jember, East Java were collected for DNA extraction. Diagnosis was microscopically conducted by Giemsa-stained thick blood smear. PCR was conducted using specific primer designed based on reference sequences targeting on the full-length of DBL2β and resulted approximately single band of 1,7 kb in a sample. This band was observed only from severe malaria sample. Sequence analysis directly from PCR product showed 74-99 % similarities with previous sequences in Gene Bank. In conclusion, the DBL2β domain of var gene of Indonesian isolates was 1,7 kb in length and there was a possible association of the existence of DBL2β domain with the severity of malaria outcome.

Keywords: DBL2β domain, var gene, Plasmodium falciparum, Indonesia.