Chen Cheng, Zhou Xue, Guo Qinghong, Lv Chao, Tang Yalan, Guo Qingqing, Chen Yang, Zhou Kerou, Fu Zhiqiang, Liu Jinming, Lin Jiaojiao, Hong Yang, Chen Jun-Hu
National Reference Laboratory for Animal Schistosomiasis, Key Laboratory of Animal Parasitology of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 200241, China.
National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC) Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research), World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, Shanghai 200025, China.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Sep 29;13(19):3068. doi: 10.3390/ani13193068.
The prevalence of schistosomiasis japonica in China is now characterized by a low epidemic rate and low-intensity infections. Some diagnostic methods with high sensitivity and specificity are urgently needed to better monitor this disease in the current situation. In this study, the detection efficacy of a real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay was assessed for schistosomiasis japonica in mice, and before and after treatment with praziquantel (PZQ). Our results showed that the sensitivity of the qPCR was 99.3% (152/153, 95% CI: 96.41-99.98%) and its specificity was 100% (77/77, 95% CI: 95.32-100%) in mice infected with different numbers of After the oral administration of PZQ, mice infected with 10 cercariae or 40 cercariae were all -negative 6 weeks after treatment. However, the negativity rates on a soluble egg antigen (SEA)-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were only 34.8% (8/23, 10 cercariae group) and 6.7% (1/15, 40 cercariae group) at the sixth week after PZQ treatment. These results demonstrated that the qPCR method had good sensitivity and specificity, and suggested that its sensitivity correlated with the infection intensity in mice. Moreover, this method had better potential utility for evaluating the treatment efficacy of PZQ in schistosome-infected mice than SEA-based ELISA.
目前，中国日本血吸虫病的流行特征为低流行率和低感染强度。在当前形势下，迫切需要一些高灵敏度和高特异性的诊断方法来更好地监测这种疾病。在本研究中，评估了实时荧光定量PCR（qPCR）检测法对小鼠日本血吸虫病以及吡喹酮（PZQ）治疗前后的检测效果。我们的结果显示，在感染不同数量尾蚴的小鼠中，qPCR的灵敏度为99.3%（152/153，95%CI：96.41-99.98%），特异性为100%（77/77，95%CI：95.32-100%）。口服PZQ后，感染10条尾蚴或40条尾蚴的小鼠在治疗6周后均为阴性。然而，基于可溶性虫卵抗原（SEA）的酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）在PZQ治疗后第6周的阴性率在10条尾蚴组仅为34.8%（8/23），在40条尾蚴组为6.7%（1/15）。这些结果表明，qPCR方法具有良好的灵敏度和特异性，并且其灵敏度与小鼠的感染强度相关。此外，与基于SEA的ELISA相比，该方法在评估PZQ对血吸虫感染小鼠的治疗效果方面具有更好的潜在应用价值。
