The development of malaria diagnostic techniques: a review of the approaches with focus on dielectrophoretic and magnetophoretic methods

Abstract

The large number of deaths caused by malaria each year has increased interest in the development of effective malaria diagnoses. At the early-stage of infection, patients show non-specific symptoms or are asymptomatic, which makes it difficult for clinical diagnosis, especially in non-endemic areas. Alternative diagnostic methods that are timely and effective are required to identify infections, particularly in field settings. This article reviews conventional malaria diagnostic methods together with recently developed techniques for both malaria detection and infected erythrocyte separation. Although many alternative techniques have recently been proposed and studied, dielectrophoretic and magnetophoretic approaches are among the promising new techniques due to their high specificity for malaria parasite-infected red blood cells. The two approaches are discussed in detail, including their principles, types, applications and limitations. In addition, other recently developed techniques, such as cell deformability and morphology, are also overviewed in this article.

Use of real-time multiplex PCR, malaria rapid diagnostic test and microscopy to investigate the prevalence of Plasmodium species among febrile hospital patients in Sierra Leone

“…The results of this assay were compared with a well-characterized RDT assay and locally performed microscopy. The obtained results were consistent with previous observations that PCR-based tests have a significantly higher sensitivity when compared with both microscopy and RDTs [14,16,17]. In addition, the assay identified several malaria-positive samples that were negative for both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria species.…”

“…DNA-based malaria assays in general, and PCR in particular, are significantly more sensitive than microscopy and RDTs. Limit of detection (LOD) for PCR is typically 1-5 parasites/µL [13][14][15][16][17] compared to 50-500 parasites/µL for microscopy [13,14,18] and more than 100 parasites/µL for RDT's [14,19]. Depending on the assay, PCR can be used for accurate species identification, detection of mixed infections, and parasite density estimation [20].…”

Characterization of biomechanical properties of cells through dielectrophoresis-based cell stretching and actin cytoskeleton modeling

“…The mechanical behavior or deformation of a stretched cell is largely determined by the cytoskeleton network, which comprises actin filaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments [14, 26]. Several studies have reported that cell deformation is dominantly associated with actin filaments [27, 28], and actin filaments were confirmed to be influenced by actin concentration, density of cross-links, and prestress [26, 29].…”

Separation of Magnetic Particles Using an Array of Magnets —A Model of a Separation Device for Malaria-Infected Blood Cells

“…(1)(2)(3) Asymptomatic malaria infection has been accepted as a major difficulty for malaria control and elimination. Therefore, a quick and accurate diagnosis using blood tests is needed for separating infected patients from a community so that the disease does not spread and can be kept under control.…”

“…The coordinate system is defined by giving the x-axis as in the flow direction, the y-axis toward the ceiling of the channel, and the z-axis toward the Table 1 Relative magnetic susceptibilities of each component in this study. (2,3) Relative magnetic susceptibility Magnetic particles iRBCs hRBCs ∆χ 0.2601 1.8 × 10 −6 0.01 × 10 −6…”