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Mon3 Apr03:30pm(15 mins)
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Where:
Room 1 Apex
Track:
Speaker:
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Highly sensitive rapid affinity sensor for malaria detection of PfHRP 2 and LDH
Aver Hemben, Jon Ashley and Ibtisam E. Tothill*
Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, England, UK
Malaria is a prominent disease in sub-Saharan Africa that is caused by Apicomplexan Plasmodium parasite and transmitted by adult female Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria affects approximately 50% of the world’s population causing millions of deaths every year mostly in pregnant women and children under 5 years of age. Despite control efforts the disease continues to affect productivity. Methods available for malaria detection include blood film microscopy, immunochromatographic and serological tests.
Blood film microscopy shows the highest sensitivity and specificity when used by trained personnel with reliable instruments. It is however time consuming and cannot be applied as a point of care diagnostic method. This study aims to develop a malaria biosensing technique that is rapid, portable, of low cost and easy to use. Malaria biomarkers Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein 2 (PfHRP 2) and Parasite lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) have been investigated in this work. Immunosensor platform based on an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was first constructed on the gold sensor surface. The developed sensor was able to detect malaria antigen with a detection limit of 0.3 ng mL-1 in buffer and 0.03 ng mL-1 in serum. The developed immunosensor is more sensitive, specific and lower in cost than ELISA and dipstick assays and is recommended for field trial.
