Molecular diagnostics for sleeping sickness: what is the benefit for the patient?
Molecular diagnostics for sleeping sickness: what is the benefit for the patient?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/s1473-3099(10)70077-3
复制
发表时间：
2010-06-01
影响因子：
56.3
通讯作者：
Buscher, Philippe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Deborggraeve, Stijn;Buscher, Philippe
昏睡病或人类非洲锥虫病是一种媒介传播的疾病，由原生动物寄生虫布氏锥虫的两个亚种引起，在地理上仅限于撒哈拉以南非洲地区。尽管这种疾病给受影响人群带来了重大的公共卫生和社会经济问题，但昏睡病是世界上最被忽视的疾病之一。在快速发展的生物技术领域，已经开发出许多分子诊断方法来检测寄生虫。这些技术包括传统的、高科技的和低技术的PCR 形式（例如等温核酸扩增技术），以及通过荧光探针直接观察寄生虫的核酸。除了回顾现有的最重要的分子诊断方法外，我们还讨论了它们目前在诊断和疾病控制中的作用。尽管分子诊断功能强大，但仅限于研究环境，无法到达患者或国家控制计划。目前的格式不适合现场条件，简化、标准化和目标设定中适当的测试评估应该是未来发展的主要重点。
Sleeping sickness, or human African trypanosomiasis, is a vector-borne disease caused by two subspecies of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, and is geographically restricted to sub-Saharan Africa. Although the disease causes major public-health and socioeconomic problems among affected populations, sleeping sickness is one of the world's most neglected diseases. Within the rapidly evolving field of biotechnology, many molecular diagnostics have been developed to detect the parasite. These range from conventional, high-tech, and low-tech PCR formats (eg, isothermal nucleic-acid-amplification techniques), to direct visualisation of the parasite's nucleic acids by fluorescent probes. Besides reviewing the most important molecular diagnostics available, we discuss their current role in diagnosis and disease control. Although powerful, molecular diagnostics are confined to research settings and do not reach the patient or national control programmes. The current formats are not applicable to field conditions, and simplification, standardisation, and proper test evaluation in the target setting should be the main focus for future development.