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Credit: St Jude Children’s
Research Hospital
An infrared spectroscopy technique can detect malaria parasites at early stages of development, according to preclinical research published in Analytical Chemistry.
A group of biochemists found this method could detect Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells by picking up on a fatty acid signature.
This allowed the researchers to identify and quantify parasites at various stages of development, including the ring and gametocyte stages.
The team also pointed out that the spectrometer they used is portable, inexpensive, and does not require highly trained staff for operation. It could therefore prove useful in the field.
“Current tests for malaria suffer from serious limitations,” said study author Bayden Wood, PhD, of Monash University in Victoria, Australia.
“Many are expensive [and] require specialist instruments and highly trained staff to judge whether blood samples contain the parasite. What’s been holding us back is the lack of an accurate and inexpensive test to detect malaria early and stop it in its tracks. We believe we’ve found it.”
Dr Wood and his colleagues already knew that fatty acids were a marker for malaria from previous studies conducted at the Australian Synchrotron. The Synchrotron allowed the team to see the different life stages of the parasite and the variation in its fatty acids.
The researchers thought they might be able to use this information for diagnosis, but they needed a more portable detection method.
So they decided to test whether attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR) could detect the fatty acid signature. The technique utilizes infrared light to pick up on the vibrations of molecules.
The researchers spiked red blood cells with parasites of different numbers and life stages and observed them using ATR-FT-IR.
Dr Wood said the method produced results within minutes. And it gave a clear indication of malaria at a much earlier stage of infection than current tests on the market—at the ring and gametocyte stages.
The absolute detection limit was 0.00001% parasitemia (<1 parasite/μL of blood) for cultured early ring-stage parasites in a suspension of normal red blood cells.
“Now that we can detect the early stages of a parasite’s life in the bloodstream, the disease will be much easier to test and treat,” Dr Wood said. “The big advantage of our test is that it doesn’t need scientists and expensive equipment. This has the potential to dramatically reduce the number of people dying from this disease in remote communities.”
The method also shows the potential to detect a number of other blood-borne diseases, according to the researchers. Dr Wood and his colleagues are now planning a clinical trial of ATR-FT-IR in Thailand. 
Credit: St Jude Children’s
Research Hospital
An infrared spectroscopy technique can detect malaria parasites at early stages of development, according to preclinical research published in Analytical Chemistry.
A group of biochemists found this method could detect Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells by picking up on a fatty acid signature.
This allowed the researchers to identify and quantify parasites at various stages of development, including the ring and gametocyte stages.
The team also pointed out that the spectrometer they used is portable, inexpensive, and does not require highly trained staff for operation. It could therefore prove useful in the field.
“Current tests for malaria suffer from serious limitations,” said study author Bayden Wood, PhD, of Monash University in Victoria, Australia.
“Many are expensive [and] require specialist instruments and highly trained staff to judge whether blood samples contain the parasite. What’s been holding us back is the lack of an accurate and inexpensive test to detect malaria early and stop it in its tracks. We believe we’ve found it.”
Dr Wood and his colleagues already knew that fatty acids were a marker for malaria from previous studies conducted at the Australian Synchrotron. The Synchrotron allowed the team to see the different life stages of the parasite and the variation in its fatty acids.
The researchers thought they might be able to use this information for diagnosis, but they needed a more portable detection method.
So they decided to test whether attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR) could detect the fatty acid signature. The technique utilizes infrared light to pick up on the vibrations of molecules.
The researchers spiked red blood cells with parasites of different numbers and life stages and observed them using ATR-FT-IR.
Dr Wood said the method produced results within minutes. And it gave a clear indication of malaria at a much earlier stage of infection than current tests on the market—at the ring and gametocyte stages.
The absolute detection limit was 0.00001% parasitemia (<1 parasite/μL of blood) for cultured early ring-stage parasites in a suspension of normal red blood cells.
“Now that we can detect the early stages of a parasite’s life in the bloodstream, the disease will be much easier to test and treat,” Dr Wood said. “The big advantage of our test is that it doesn’t need scientists and expensive equipment. This has the potential to dramatically reduce the number of people dying from this disease in remote communities.”
The method also shows the potential to detect a number of other blood-borne diseases, according to the researchers. Dr Wood and his colleagues are now planning a clinical trial of ATR-FT-IR in Thailand.
Credit: St Jude Children’s
Research Hospital
An infrared spectroscopy technique can detect malaria parasites at early stages of development, according to preclinical research published in Analytical Chemistry.
A group of biochemists found this method could detect Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells by picking up on a fatty acid signature.
This allowed the researchers to identify and quantify parasites at various stages of development, including the ring and gametocyte stages.
The team also pointed out that the spectrometer they used is portable, inexpensive, and does not require highly trained staff for operation. It could therefore prove useful in the field.
“Current tests for malaria suffer from serious limitations,” said study author Bayden Wood, PhD, of Monash University in Victoria, Australia.
“Many are expensive [and] require specialist instruments and highly trained staff to judge whether blood samples contain the parasite. What’s been holding us back is the lack of an accurate and inexpensive test to detect malaria early and stop it in its tracks. We believe we’ve found it.”
Dr Wood and his colleagues already knew that fatty acids were a marker for malaria from previous studies conducted at the Australian Synchrotron. The Synchrotron allowed the team to see the different life stages of the parasite and the variation in its fatty acids.
The researchers thought they might be able to use this information for diagnosis, but they needed a more portable detection method.
So they decided to test whether attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR) could detect the fatty acid signature. The technique utilizes infrared light to pick up on the vibrations of molecules.
The researchers spiked red blood cells with parasites of different numbers and life stages and observed them using ATR-FT-IR.
Dr Wood said the method produced results within minutes. And it gave a clear indication of malaria at a much earlier stage of infection than current tests on the market—at the ring and gametocyte stages.
The absolute detection limit was 0.00001% parasitemia (<1 parasite/μL of blood) for cultured early ring-stage parasites in a suspension of normal red blood cells.
“Now that we can detect the early stages of a parasite’s life in the bloodstream, the disease will be much easier to test and treat,” Dr Wood said. “The big advantage of our test is that it doesn’t need scientists and expensive equipment. This has the potential to dramatically reduce the number of people dying from this disease in remote communities.”
The method also shows the potential to detect a number of other blood-borne diseases, according to the researchers. Dr Wood and his colleagues are now planning a clinical trial of ATR-FT-IR in Thailand.