Potential Biomarkers and Their Applications for Rapid and Reliable Detection of Malaria

Abstract

Malaria has been responsible for the highest mortality in most malaria endemic countries. Even after decades of malaria control campaigns, it still persists as a disease of high mortality due to improper diagnosis and rapidly evolving drug resistant malarial parasites. For efficient and economical malaria management, WHO recommends that all malaria suspected patients should receive proper diagnosis before administering drugs. It is thus imperative to develop fast, economical, and accurate techniques for diagnosis of malaria. In this regard an in-depth knowledge on malaria biomarkers is important to identify an appropriate biorecognition element and utilize it prudently to develop a reliable detection technique for diagnosis of the disease. Among the various biomarkers, plasmodial lactate dehydrogenase and histidine-rich protein II (HRP II) have received increasing attention for developing rapid and reliable detection techniques for malaria. The widely used rapid detection tests (RDTs) for malaria succumb to many drawbacks which promotes exploration of more efficient economical detection techniques. This paper provides an overview on the current status of malaria biomarkers, along with their potential utilization for developing different malaria diagnostic techniques and advanced biosensors.

Recent Advances in the Development of Biosensors for Malaria Diagnosis

“…Malaria remains an important parasitic human disease globally, which is transmitted via the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes. The greatest burden of the disease is in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world [1,2]. The disease causes high economic burden to the countries that are endemic, mostly, developing countries.…”

Immunodiagnosis Tools for Parasitic Diseases

“…It has many advantages which include small fluid volume manipulation (less reagent and lower cost), short assay time, low energy consumption, high portability, high through put and multiplexing ability [49,50]. For the detection of malaria various biomarkers have been used among them the plasmodial lactate dehydrogenase and histidinerich protein II (HRP II) has received increasing attention [51]. The widely used rapid detection tests (RDTs) for malaria succumb to many drawbacks which promotes exploration of more efficient economical detection techniques.…”

Catalytic degradation ofβ–hematin (malaria biomaker) using some selected metal oxide nanoparticles

“…The presence of hemozoin disturbs normal cellular function and physiology of host, whereas the parasite is less affected by it [3]. Hemozoin plays a role as a visible marker in identifying malarial parasites and hence, it is popularly termed as malaria pigment [4].…”