Geary Timothy G
Institute of Parasitology, McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada
mBio. 2016 Apr 12;7(2):e00456-16. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00456-16.
Mass drug administration (MDA) programs have achieved remarkable success in limiting the pathology and transmission of the human parasitic infections onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. The full implementation of MDA campaigns for filariasis elimination has been stymied by the unacceptable incidence of severe adverse events observed following drug treatment of a subset of individuals who harbor high loads of Loa loa microfilaria. Extending MDA strategies to regions where loiasis is coendemic could be done confidently if a simple, inexpensive, and rapid diagnostic method was available that could accurately identify individuals who have L. loa microfilarial loads above the risk threshold and could thus be excluded from treatment. A recent paper in mBio reports the discovery of an antigen unique to L. loa microfilaria that can be detected in blood and urine and may form the basis for such an assay. Further work will reveal whether this discovery will smooth the path to achieve filariasis eradication.
群体药物给药（MDA）计划在限制人类寄生虫感染盘尾丝虫病和淋巴丝虫病的病理和传播方面取得了显著成功。由于在对携带高负荷罗阿丝虫微丝蚴的一部分个体进行药物治疗后观察到严重不良事件的发生率令人无法接受，丝虫病消除MDA运动的全面实施受到了阻碍。如果有一种简单、廉价且快速的诊断方法可用，能够准确识别罗阿丝虫微丝蚴负荷高于风险阈值的个体，从而将其排除在治疗之外，那么就可以有信心地将MDA策略扩展到罗阿丝虫病共同流行的地区。《mBio》最近发表的一篇论文报道发现了一种罗阿丝虫微丝蚴特有的抗原，该抗原可在血液和尿液中检测到，可能构成这种检测方法的基础。进一步的研究将揭示这一发现是否会为实现丝虫病根除铺平道路。
