gms | German Medical Science

12th Malaria Meeting

Malaria Group / Section Antiparasitic Chemotherapy of the Paul-Ehrlich-Society (PEG e. V.) in cooperation with the German Society for Tropical Medicine and International Health (DTG e. V.) and the German Society for Parasitology (DGP e. V.)

14.11. - 15.11.2014, Bonn

A new immuno-qPCR method for malaria detection

Meeting Abstract

  • Renate Zelger - Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
  • Elecia Johnston - School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville City, Australia
  • Patrick M. Schaeffer - School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville City, Australia
  • Alex G. Maier - Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

12th Malaria Meeting. Bonn, 14.-15.11.2014. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. Doc14mal14

doi: 10.3205/14mal14, urn:nbn:de:0183-14mal146

Published: December 17, 2014

© 2014 Zelger et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

The goal of this project is to improve diagnostics for malaria, one of the most deadly infectious diseases. All current methods of detecting Plasmodium show several limitations and disadvantages. Immuno-qPCR uses a DNA-conjugated antibody to detect a specific antigen by PCR amplification. Its advantage is its unprecedented detection sensitivity. However, one major challenge in immuno-qPCR is the synthesis of protein-DNA conjugates. We have adapted and evaluated the universal ultra-sensitive immuno-qPCR diagnostic platform (UUDP) for the quantitative detection of malaria parasites. The UUDP uses a unique self-assembling adapter for antibody-DNA conjugation consisting of the DNA-binding protein Tus fused to protein G. Here we present a new optimized UUDP assay for the detection of pLDH antibodies, which are widely used in commercial diagnostic tests.