Loop-mediated isothermal amplification as point-of-care diagnosis for neglected parasitic infections

Catalina Avendaño, Manuel Alfonso Patarroyo

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has placed twenty diseases into a group known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), twelve of them being parasitic diseases: Chagas disease, cysticercosis/ taeniasis, echinococcosis, food-borne trematodiasis, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis (ascariasis, hookworm, trichuriasis), guinea-worm and scabies. Such diseases affect millions of people in developing countries where one of the main problems concerning the control of these diseases is diagnosis-based due to the most affected areas usually being far from laboratories having suitable infrastructure and/or being equipped with sophisticated equipment. Advances have been made during the last two decades regarding standardising and introducing techniques enabling diagnoses to be made in remote places, i.e., the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique. This techniques advantages include being able to perform it using simple equipment, diagnosis made directly in the field, low cost of each test and the techniques high specificity. Using this technique could thus contribute toward neglected parasite infection (NPI) control and eradication programmes. This review describes the advances made to date regarding LAMP tests, as it has been found that even though several studies have been conducted concerning most NPI, information is scarce for others.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number7981
Pages (from-to)1-32
Number of pages32
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume21
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Catalysis
  • Molecular Biology
  • Spectroscopy
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry

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