Digital PCR Can Help Select Most Effective Rapid Malaria Test

 Digital PCR Can Help Select Most Effective Rapid Malaria Test

Rapid malaria tests have become a vital tool in controlling malaria outbreaks, requiring small drops of blood, providing results in just 15 minutes and costing less than $1 each. These tests typically work by detecting the Histidine-Rich Proteins (HRP) 2 and 3 in malaria parasites, but some parasites have mutated to lack the genes for HRP2 and HRP3, leading to potential false negative results when using a rapid test. An international team led by researchers at the University of Notre Dame have now proposed a method that could help determine when an alternate rapid test is needed to detect malaria variants, using digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) to accurately quantify the rates of HRP2 and HRP3 gene deletion across geographic areas.

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