AUTHOR=Sambe Babacar Souleymane , Diagne Aissatou , Diatta Hélène Ataume Mawounge , Gaba Folly Mawulolo , Sarr Ibrahima , Diatta Arona Sabène , Diaw Serigne Ousmane Mbacké , Sané Rokhaya , Diouf Babacar , Vigan-Womas Inès , Mbengue Babacar , Niang Makhtar 

TITLE=Molecular detection and quantification of Plasmodium vivax DNA in blood pellet and plasma samples from patients in Senegal

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Parasitology

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/parasitology/articles/10.3389/fpara.2023.1149738

DOI=10.3389/fpara.2023.1149738

ISSN=2813-2424

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>The first discovery of <italic>Plasmodium vivax</italic> infections in Senegal used archived patients’ sera in place of blood pellet, the preferred specimen for the molecular diagnosis of <italic>Plasmodium</italic> species. The present study assessed the reliability of detecting <italic>P. vivax</italic> DNA in plasma in comparison to blood pellet from the same patient’s samples.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>A total of 616 blood samples obtained from febrile patients living in Kolda (2015 and 2020), Tambacounda (2017 and 2020), and Kedougou (2020) regions in Senegal, were first screened for <italic>Plasmodium</italic> species composition by 18S ssrRNA-based nested PCR. Paired blood pellets and plasma samples were selected from a subset of 50 <italic>P. vivax</italic>-positive patients matched by age and sex with 50 <italic>P. vivax</italic>-negative patients, and subjected to a cytochrome b-based qPCR to compare the detection and quantification of <italic>P. vivax</italic> genomic DNA between the two specimen types.</p></sec><sec><title>Results and discussion</title><p>The study reports 1.8% and 14.77% of single and mixed <italic>P. vivax</italic> infections in the study population, and a high concordance (84%) between the qPCR detection of <italic>P. vivax</italic> genomic DNA from paired blood pellets and plasma samples. Importantly, all <italic>P. vivax</italic> negative samples from the blood pellets were also confirmed plasma-negative, and parasitaemia in blood pellets was higher compared to plasma samples. The results support investigations of <italic>P. vivax</italic> infections in archived sera or plasma collections with a high degree of confidence to generate additional data on the neglected <italic>P. vivax</italic> malaria, and ultimately guide strategies to control the disease.</p></sec>