Rapid Test Kit Of Malaria Could Potentially Aid Diagnosis In Emerging Countries

Jul, 2021 - By SMI

The scientists estimate that every test would need nearly US$1 per chip for manufacturing and at the price will facilitate large scale point-of-care low-cost field testing.

A scientists’ team at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a malaria test kit that conveys results within just 30 minutes. This kit can facilitate the malaria diagnosis in this field, since the needed equipment is expected to be easy-to-use, light weight, and capable of detecting the disease within its initial stages.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO), around 229 million populace suffered with malaria in 2019. This disease is transmitted through mosquitoes, resulted in 409,000 people’s deaths around 87 majorly developing countries. This NTU made test kit can reduce reliance of researchers on complex equipment of laboratory as it could just require water and blood sample to operate. The kit functions by sensing hemozoin, a formed by-product from the blood digestion by parasites of malaria, which is the disease’s unique indicator. Initially, ten microliter blood of patient, which is not more than a water drop, is combined with water for forcing RBCs to release contained parasites. Then the pump in the kit sucks in this blood mixture for bringing it in against several patches of chemicals, causing hemazoin to brighten up. The light flashes then are picked by the detector, called as the Raman spectrometer that determines if there is presence of an infection or not, along with its severity.

For validating the test kit’s accuracy, researchers filled malaria parasite infected human blood into chip. This test was able to detect early parasites stages at a 125 parasites /microliter blood level, which is higher sensitivity compared to currently available tests of rapid diagnosis. The scientists estimate that every test would need nearly US$1 per chip for manufacturing and at the price will facilitate large scale point-of-care low-cost field testing. Team hopes of finding a partner in industry for working with and for conducting further trials for their test kit of malaria to enhance its functionality and sensitivity.