State-of-the-Art Techniques for Diagnosis of Medical Parasites and Arthropods

Abstract

Conventional methods such as microscopy have been used to diagnose parasitic diseases and medical conditions related to arthropods for many years. Some techniques are considered gold standard methods. However, their limited sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy, and the need for costly reagents and high-skilled technicians are critical problems. New tools are therefore continually being developed to reduce pitfalls. Recently, three state-of-the-art techniques have emerged: DNA barcoding, geometric morphometrics, and artificial intelligence. Here, data related to the three approaches are reviewed. DNA barcoding involves an analysis of a barcode sequence. It was used to diagnose medical parasites and arthropods with 95.0% accuracy. However, this technique still requires costly reagents and equipment. Geometric morphometric analysis is the statistical analysis of the patterns of shape change of an anatomical structure. Its accuracy is approximately 94.0-100.0%, and unlike DNA barcoding, costly reagents and equipment are not required. Artificial intelligence technology involves the analysis of pictures using well-trained algorithms. It showed 98.8-99.0% precision. All three approaches use computer programs instead of human interpretation. They also have the potential to be high-throughput technologies since many samples can be analyzed at once. However, the limitation of using these techniques in real settings is species coverage.

Keywords: DNA barcoding; arthropod; artificial intelligence; diagnosis; geometric morphometrics; parasite; parasitic disease; parasitology.

Figure 1

Timeline of technologies for medical parasite and arthropod diagnoses. Microscopy has been applied for pathogen and insect identifications for several centuries. To improve detection efficacy, a range of techniques have emerged. They encompass artificial intelligence, ELISA, PCR, geometric morphometrics, and DNA barcoding techniques.

Figure 2

Steps of DNA barcoding technique for medical parasite and arthropod diagnoses. DNA is extracted from a clinical specimen (1), and a barcode region is amplified using the universal primers (2,3). The PCR product is purified and submitted for nucleotide sequencing (4). This sequence is subsequently analyzed for species identification based on the nucleotide sequence similarity to the referenced sequences in the BOLD database (5,6).

Figure 3

Steps of medical parasite and arthropod diagnoses using geometric morphometric analysis. An unknown sample is prepared on a glass slide or any solid support. A defined structure of an unknown sample is photographed and submitted to XYOM software (https://xyom.io, accessed on 14 August 2021) [63] or related tools. The image file input is scaled, landmark digitized, and statistically analyzed.

Figure 4

Malaria diagnosis by artificial intelligence technology. After performing a blood smear and staining, image acquisition, preprocessing, cell segmentation, feature extraction and selection, and parasite identification were performed. Several mathematic models and algorithms were applied to identify the Plasmodium species.