Développement d'un système fluidique exploitant les propriétés paramagnétiques de l'hémozoïne pour le diagnostic de la malaria

Malaria, caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium and transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, occurs endemically in 106 countries. In 2013, some 198 million confirmed cases of malaria were recorded and about 584,000 people died (1)
Because of the frequent absence of a diagnostic tool, antimalarial treatments are currently often administered without objective diagnosis of the disease, which results in over- and misuse of drugs, possibly leading to the faster emergence of resistances. Thus the need for new malaria diagnosis methods remains crucial, the current techniques (rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy) being too expensive, lowly sensitive or difficult to implement. The hemozoin ('malaria pigment') is currently considered as a possible marker to diagnose the disease (2). A fluidic device is developed in our laboratory to exploit the paramagnetic susceptibility of hemozoin for its isolation from biological matrixes; detection is ensured by a photometric system based on a 405 nm monochromatic led and photosensor. Optimization and validation of the device is on-going; the current prototype, for which a Patent application has been submitted to the British Patent Office (3), can reliably and consistently detect 0.05 g/mL of hemozoin, corresponding to 80 parasites/L (4), lower than the 200 parasites/L limit recommended by the World Heath Organization.

References
1. WHO (2014). Worl Malaria Report 2014.
2. Pisciotta JM and Sullvan D, Parasitology International 57 (2008) 89-96
3. British Patent Office, Patent application number 1419230.6
4. Newman et al, Biophys J. 2008Jul;95(2):994-1000