Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Evolution Biotechnologies, Colworth Science Park, Sharnbrook, Bedford, MK44 1LZ, UK.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 15;8(1):7545. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26010-6.
Malaria is a severe disease of global importance transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The ability to rapidly detect the presence of infectious mosquitoes able to transmit malaria is of vital importance for surveillance, control and elimination efforts. Current methods principally rely on large-scale mosquito collections followed by labour-intensive salivary gland dissections or enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) methods to detect sporozoites. Using forced salivation, we demonstrate here that Anopheles mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium expel sporozoites during sugar feeding. Expelled sporozoites can be detected on two sugar-soaked substrates, cotton wool and Whatman FTA cards, and sporozoite DNA is detectable using real-time PCR. These results demonstrate a simple and rapid methodology for detecting the presence of infectious mosquitoes with sporozoites and highlight potential laboratory applications for investigating mosquito-malaria interactions. Our results indicate that FTA cards could be used as a simple, effective and economical tool in enhancing field surveillance activities for malaria.
疟疾是一种由按蚊属蚊子传播的严重疾病，具有全球重要性。快速检测到具有传播疟疾能力的传染性蚊子的存在，对于监测、控制和消除工作至关重要。目前的方法主要依赖于大规模的蚊子收集，然后进行劳动密集型的唾液腺解剖或酶联免疫吸附（ELISA）方法来检测孢子。在这里，我们通过强制唾液分泌证明，感染疟原虫的按蚊在吸食糖分时会排出孢子。在两种糖浸泡的基质（棉花和沃特曼 FTA 卡）上可以检测到排出的孢子，使用实时 PCR 可以检测到孢子的 DNA。这些结果表明，存在一种简单快速的方法来检测带有孢子的传染性蚊子，并强调了在研究蚊子与疟疾相互作用方面的潜在实验室应用。我们的结果表明，FTA 卡可以作为一种简单、有效和经济的工具，增强疟疾现场监测活动。
