2025-10-10 インペリアル・カレッジ・ロンドン(ICL)
<関連情報>
- https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/269653/rapid-diagnostics-test-detect-asymptomatic-malaria/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64027-4
アフリカの流行国における無症候性および超顕微鏡的熱帯熱マラリア感染症の高感度な診療現場近傍検出 Sensitive near point-of-care detection of asymptomatic and submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections in African endemic countries
Dimbintsoa Rakotomalala Robinson,Ivana Pennisi,Matthew L. Cavuto,Francois Kiemde,Martin Chamai,Diane Yirgnur Some,Elliot Quigley,Kenny Malpartida-Cardenas,Mamadou O. Ndiath,Simon Correa,Bubacarr Darboe,Lindsay B. Stewart,Pantelis Georgiou,Mamadu Baldeh,Halidou Tinto,Aubrey J. Cunnington,Annette Erhart,Umberto D’Alessandro & Jesus Rodriguez-ManzanoOn behalf of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems
Nature Communications Published:10 October 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64027-4
Abstract
Limited diagnostic capacity for detecting asymptomatic malaria infections with low parasite densities hinders elimination efforts in Africa. Here, we adapt a near point-of-care, LAMP-based diagnostic platform for malaria diagnosis using capillary blood. This Pan/Pf detection method meets the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA) criteria for community-level screening, with a limit of detection of 0.6 parasites/μL and a sample-to-result time under 45 minutes. We evaluate its performance on 672 capillary blood samples collected at the community level in The Gambia and Burkina Faso, including 146 Plasmodium falciparum positives confirmed by qPCR. The diagnostic platform achieved 95.2% sensitivity (95% CI: 90.4–98.1) and 96.8% specificity (95% CI: 94.9–98.0). It also detected 94.9% (130/137) of asymptomatic infections and 95.3% (41/43) of submicroscopic cases (<16 parasites/μL), outperforming expert microscopy (70.1% and 0%) and rapid diagnostic tests (49.6% and 4.7%). This field-deployable molecular diagnostic method offers a sensitive, scalable solution to support test-and-treat strategies for malaria elimination across Africa.
