Open AccessA new diagnostic strategy which uses a luminol-H2O2 system to detect helminth eggs in fecal sediments processed by the Helmintex method
Author(s) -
Vivian Favero,
Carolina De Marco Veríssimo,
Angela Regina Piovesan,
Alessandra Loureiro Morassutti,
André A. Souto,
Hélio Radke Bittencourt,
Vanessa Fey Pascoal,
Catieli Gobetti Lindholz,
Malcolm K. Jones,
Renata Perotto de Souza,
Francine de Vargas Rigo,
Celia Regina Ribeiro da Silva Carlini,
Carlos Graeff-Teixeira
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos neglected tropical diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.99
H-Index - 135
eISSN - 1935-2735
pISSN - 1935-2727
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008500
Subject(s) - schistosoma mansoni , chemiluminescence , luminol , feces , schistosomiasis , schistosoma , helminths , helminthiasis , trematoda , biology , veterinary medicine , immunology , chemistry , environmental chemistry , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , chromatography
Schistosomiasis remains a serious public health problem in tropical regions, affecting more than 250 million people. Sensitive diagnostic methods represent key tools for disease elimination, in particular in areas with low endemicity. Advances in the use of luminol-based chemiluminescent techniques have enabled greater sensitivity and speed in obtaining results in different diagnostic settings. In this study, we developed a luminol-H 2 O 2 chemiluminescence (CL) method to detect Schistosoma mansoni eggs in human fecal sediments processed by the Helmintex (HTX) method. After S . mansoni eggs were incubated with a solution of luminol-H 2 O 2 the light emission was detected and measured by spectrophotometry at 431 nm for 5 min, using detection and counts of eggs by bright field optical microscopy as a reference. CL intensity was found to correlate with different sources and numbers of eggs. Furthermore, our results showed that the CL method can distinguish positive from negative samples with 100% sensitivity and 71% specificity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the use of CL for the diagnosis of helminths from fecal samples. The combination of the HTX method with CL represents an important advance in providing a reference method with the highest standards of sensitivity.