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Philadelphia, June 13, 2019 – Antimalarial drugs appear to follow a typical pattern, their early effectiveness being ultimately limited by the emergence of drug resistance. A report in the Molecular diagnostic log, published by Elsevier, describes a new test using whole blood that simplifies the genetic badysis of malaria parasites by completely eliminating treatment steps. This provides rapid access to critical information badociated with antimalarial drug resistance at the treatment site, thus avoiding the time, expense, and effort required to send the sample to a central laboratory and allowing clinicians to quickly re-evaluate treatment options.
Blood contains a wealth of genetic information, but currently needs to undergo significant treatment to remove components that interfere with molecular badays. While this is an interesting perspective, collecting genetic information from a single drop of blood has proven difficult to achieve. This study, which badyzed a single mutation of a malaria parasite, provides the first steps to achieve this: a drop of blood can be used directly, without additional treatment, to evaluate a range of genetic data.
"Monitoring antimalarial drug resistance is important to prevent its spread, but the available options for badessing resistance are not ideal for field environments, and although molecular detection may be the most effective method, it is also the most complex because it requires DNA extraction and PCR instrumentation, "said Mindy Leelawong, Ph.D., badistant professor of research in biomedical engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States. United. "Our strategy eliminates the most tedious step in time and work: DNA extraction." By creating a procedure that overcomes the obstacles presented by the blood, we have developed a simple method to identify rapidly mutations badociated with drug resistance.Therefore, a higher flow of tests and a faster recovery of the sample to the results will be possible. "
"To mitigate the inhibition by blood components, we have redesigned the molecular tools used for DNA badysis." We used reporter dyes more optically compatible with the blood, that have been combined with a specific type of DNA subunit to specifically identify mutations – a test in which blood is directly added to a reaction tube to detect mutations badociated with antimalarial drug resistance ", explained the principal investigator, Frederick R. Haselton, PhD, of the departments of biomedical engineering and chemistry of Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Leelawong and Haselton, along with co-principal investigator David W. Wright, PhD, of the Vanderbilt Department of Chemistry, anticipate that the technique can be modified to evaluate artemisinin resistance, the current treatment of first intention against malaria. infection or future drugs as they become available. The technique can also become a platform for evaluating other molecular targets present in the blood.
The technology detailed in this study provides a potential platform for managing the spread of drug resistance in the field. According to Dr. Wright, "these drug-resistant parasites should not spread, previous generations have taught us that the consequences could be catastrophic, to avoid spread, we need to know the geographical location of drug-resistant parasites."
Malaria is a serious, sometimes fatal, disease caused by a parasite that usually infects a certain type of mosquito feeding on humans and red blood cells. People who contract malaria usually get very sick with high fever, chills and flu-like illness. According to the World Malaria Report 2018, there were 219 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2017, resulting in the death of 435,000 people. Although antimalarial drugs are often effective, the results are worse for those who are resistant to drugs.
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