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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Neil Boonham
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2020 The AuthorsGuinea worm Dracunculus medinensis causes debilitating disease in people and is subject to an ongoing global eradication programme. Research and controls are constrained by a lack of diagnostic tools. We developed a specific and sensitive LAMP method for detecting D. medinensis larval DNA in copepod vectors. We were able to detect a single larva in a background of field-collected copepods. This method could form the basis of a “pond-side test” for detecting potential sources of Guinea worm infection in the environment, in copepods, including in the guts of fish as potential transport hosts, enabling research, surveillance and targeting of control measures. The key constraint on the utility of this assay as a field diagnostic, is a lack of knowledge of variation in the temporal and spatial distribution of D. medinensis larvae in copepods in water bodies in the affected areas and how best to sample copepods to obtain a reliable diagnostic sample. These fundamental knowledge gaps could readily be addressed with field collections of samples across areas experiencing a range of worm infection frequencies, coupled with field and laboratory analyses using LAMP and PCR.
Author(s): Boonham N, Tomlinson J, Ostoja-Starzewska S, McDonald RA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Experimental Parasitology
Year: 2020
Volume: 217
Print publication date: 01/10/2020
Online publication date: 02/08/2020
Acceptance date: 21/07/2020
Date deposited: 15/10/2020
ISSN (print): 0014-4894
ISSN (electronic): 1090-2449
Publisher: Academic Press Inc.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exppara.2020.107960
DOI: 10.1016/j.exppara.2020.107960
PubMed id: 32755552
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