Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Animal Parasitology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai 200241, China.
Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730050, China.
Infect Genet Evol. 2021 Mar;88:104683. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104683. Epub 2020 Dec 24.
Schistosomiasis is a major public health problem that is included in the neglected tropical diseases. The early diagnosis and detection of the pathogen are of critical importance in the control of the disease. The diagnostic techniques in use include the detection of worm's eggs in fecal examination or detection of circulating antigens in immunological based assays. These traditional strategies lack sensitivity in earlier detection of the schistosomiasis. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) that includes the fragments of parasitic DNA circulating in the body fluids of host offers an alternative mean for the rapid pathogen detection and thus is a useful diagnostic tool. In this study, we explored the usefulness of the mitochondrial cfDNA markers for the diagnosis of schistosomiasis from the experimentally infected hosts (rabbits and mice). In this study we found mitochondrial DNA fragment cytochrome B gene as persistent and useful cfDNA marker for the early detection of schistosomiasis. We evaluated the sensitivity of cfDNA marker with varying numbers of cercaria. Overall, our results suggest that cfDNA markers can be useful for developing a diagnostic tool for the detection of S. japonicum infection.
血吸虫病是一种被忽视的热带病，也是一个主要的公共卫生问题。在疾病控制中，病原体的早期诊断和检测至关重要。目前使用的诊断技术包括粪便检查中检测虫卵或免疫测定中检测循环抗原。这些传统策略在早期检测血吸虫病方面缺乏敏感性。无细胞 DNA（cfDNA）包括寄生 DNA 片段在宿主体液中的循环，为快速病原体检测提供了另一种方法，因此是一种有用的诊断工具。在这项研究中，我们从实验感染的宿主（兔子和老鼠）中探索了线粒体 cfDNA 标记物在血吸虫病诊断中的有用性。在这项研究中，我们发现线粒体 DNA 片段细胞色素 B 基因是一种持续且有用的 cfDNA 标记物，可用于早期检测血吸虫病。我们评估了 cfDNA 标记物在不同数量尾蚴时的敏感性。总的来说，我们的结果表明，cfDNA 标记物可用于开发检测日本血吸虫感染的诊断工具。
