Malaria continues to be endemic in the middle-to low-resourced regions of the world. One of the World Health Organization (WHO) global technical strategy goals towards 2030 is to lower the malaria infection by 90%. Attaining this ambitious goal entails early and accurate diagnosis of the parasite that will inform treatment measures to be taken. Herein, we report on the application of the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform to fabricate malaria bio-sensing probes: lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) malaria antibodies (mAb) were immobilized on a SERS substrate and used to capture Plasmodium falciparum (pf) malaria antigen. A detection hybrid, Ag plasmonic metals labelled with a Raman reporter (SERS tag) and conjugated to a second LDH mAb, was hybridized on the captured antigen. The detection hybrid binds the antigen on a specific epitope, and the sandwich is interpreted using vibrational Raman spectroscopy that indirectly confirms the pfLDH malaria antigen via the Raman reporter label. The SERS probes showed specificity, sensitivity and rapidity in the detection of pfLDH. They are proposed for secondary confirmation of field-based lateral flows and offer improved sensitivity and quantification capabilities.
Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease that is caused by the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV); Bunyaviridae: Phlebovirus. RVF disease can affect several different species, including ruminants, camels and humans and thus present a dual threat to public health and livestock food production in endemic regions. In livestock, the RVFV infection is characterised by an acute hepatitis, abortion and high mortality rates in new-born animals. The current RVF diagnostic techniques have shown good sensitivity. However, they require extensive sample processing and complex instrumentation. Owing to speed, low cost, ease of use, and most importantly, the ability to diagnose diseases at sites where they are managed, lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA) are the most widely used point-of-care (POC) tools for disease diagnosis. In this study, a lateral flow assay (LFA) device that is able to detect antibodies against RVFV, with a minimum detectable concentration of 0.125 mg/mL, was successfully developed. The LFA also successfully detected RVFV antibodies in reference RVFV sera. Protein A (ProA), which has the ability to bind immunoglobulins from different species, was used in the detection probe, giving the developed RVFV LFA potential for multi-species diagnosis.
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