Sazed Saiful Arefeen, Kibria Mohammad Golam, Alam Mohammad Shafiul
Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research, Bangladesh Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Apr 21;11(5):736. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11050736.
Polymerase chain reaction, although an expensive method for the detection of human spp., is still considered the finest for the diagnosis of malaria. The conventional diagnostic PCR is an inexpensive process but consumes a lot of time, reagents and lacks sensitivity. On the other hand, real-time PCR assays currently being used are mostly probe-based expensive methods and sometimes not feasible to detect all the species in a single amplification reaction condition. Here we have established a real-time PCR method that is time and cost effective with a single protocol to detect and distinguish five human species using the existing primers efficiently. The primers used here are being used in the conventional method and the sensitivity as well as specificity of this method has also been immensely improved (100%). The lower limit of detection for , and are 0.064 parasites/µL, 1.6 parasites/µL, and 0.32 parasites/µL respectively and no cross reactivity was observed. Besides, we have analyzed melt curves that can be used for further species confirmation and validation purposes using multiplex systems. This method, therefore, can be considered as an alternative to the existing lineup for molecular diagnosis of malaria in endemic countries.
聚合酶链反应虽然是检测人体疟原虫属的一种昂贵方法,但仍是疟疾诊断的最佳方法。传统的诊断性聚合酶链反应成本较低,但耗时较长,需要消耗大量试剂,且缺乏灵敏度。另一方面,目前使用的实时聚合酶链反应检测大多是基于探针的昂贵方法,有时在单一扩增反应条件下检测所有疟原虫种类并不可行。在此,我们建立了一种实时聚合酶链反应方法,该方法具有时间和成本效益,采用单一方案,利用现有引物高效检测和区分五种人体疟原虫种类。这里使用的引物也用于传统方法,并且该方法的灵敏度和特异性也得到了极大提高(100%)。间日疟原虫、恶性疟原虫和卵形疟原虫的检测下限分别为0.064个寄生虫/微升、1.6个寄生虫/微升和0.32个寄生虫/微升,未观察到交叉反应。此外,我们分析了熔解曲线,可用于使用多重系统进行进一步的疟原虫种类确认和验证。因此,这种方法可被视为疟疾流行国家现有疟疾分子诊断方法的替代方法。