English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Background  Malaria remains a global public health problem responsible for 445,000 deaths in 2016. While microscopy remains the mainstay of malaria diagnosis, highly sensitive molecular methods for detection of low-grade sub-microscopic infections are needed for surveillance studies and identifying asymptomatic reservoirs of malaria transmission.    Methods  The  Plasmodium falciparum  genome sequence was analysed to identify high copy number genes that improve  P. falciparum  parasite detection in blood by RT-PCR.  Plasmodium falciparum  erythrocyte membrane protein 1 ( Pf EMP1)-specific primers were evaluated for  P. falciparum  detection in hospital-based microscopically positive dried blood spots and field-acquired whole blood from asymptomatic individuals from Ghana.    Results   Pf EMP1 outperformed the  Pf 18S sequence for amplification-based  P. falciparum  detection.  Pf EMP1 primers exhibited sevenfold higher sensitivity compared to  Pf 18S primers for parasite genomic DNA. Probit analysis established a 95% detection threshold of 9.3 parasites/mL for  Pf EMP1 compared to 98.2 parasites/mL for  Pf 18S primers. The  Pf EMP1 primers also demonstrated superior clinical sensitivity, identifying 100% (20/20) of dried blood spot samples and 70% (69/98) of asymptomatic individuals as positive versus 55% (11/20) and 54% (53/98), respectively, for  Pf 18S amplification.    Conclusions  These results establish  Pf EMP1 as a novel amplification target for highly sensitive detection of both acute infections from filter paper samples and submicroscopic asymptomatic low-grade infections.

Sensitive real-time PCR detection of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in whole blood by erythrocyte membrane protein 1 gene amplification