Development of a laboratorial platform for diagnosis of schistosomiasis mansoni by PCR-ELISA

Abstract

Objective: We developed a laboratorial platform to release a commercial platform used in the PCR-ELISA for the molecular diagnosis of schistosomiasis mansoni. On following, PCR-ELISA platform laboratorial was evaluated in 206 feces samples collected of individual living in a Brazilian low endemicity area.

Results: The PCR-ELISA laboratorial platform indicated a prevalence rate of 25.2%, which was higher than the Kato-Katz technique (18.4%) and lower than the commercial platform (30.1%). Considering Kato-Katz technique as the reference, there were 97.4% and 91.1% of relative sensitivity and specificity rates, respectively. The laboratorial platform presented good precision, performance diagnostic, and can be used in replacement to the commercial platform for diagnosis of schistosomiasis by PCR-ELISA.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Disease control; PCR-ELISA; Schistosoma mansoni; Schistosomiasis.

Fig. 1

a 6% polyacrylamide gel showing 110 pb bands with decreasing intensity from 3 ng/µl to 3 fg/µl. The corresponding absorbance readings presented by the PCR-ELISA laboratorial platform are described below each lane, decreasing from 1.858 to 0.278, according to the concentration of S. mansoni DNA used in the PCR reaction. A 100 bp ladder marker (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) and a negative control (NC) are presented in the first two lanes. b Pearson’s positive correlation between the Log10 [S. mansoni DNA] and absorbance readings (450 nm). Pearson’s coefficient = 0.932 (r² = 0.87, p = 0.002)