Affiliations 

  • 1 University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia. sumudu.britton@qimrberghofer.edu.au
  • 2 Australian Army Malaria Institute, Brisbane, Australia
  • 3 Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia
  • 4 Clinical Research Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Jesselton Medical Center, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
  • 5 University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2016 07 06;95(1):120-2.
PMID: 27162264 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.15-0670

Abstract

The simian parasite Plasmodium knowlesi is now the commonest cause of malaria in Malaysia and can rapidly cause severe and fatal malaria. However, microscopic misdiagnosis of Plasmodium species is common, rapid antigen detection tests remain insufficiently sensitive and confirmation of P. knowlesi requires polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thus available point-of-care diagnostic tests are inadequate. This study reports the development of a simple, sensitive, colorimetric, high-throughput loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay (HtLAMP) diagnostic test using novel primers for the detection of P. knowlesi. This assay is able to detect 0.2 parasites/μL, and compared with PCR has a sensitivity of 96% for the detection of P. knowlesi, making it a potentially field-applicable point-of-care diagnostic tool.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.