TY - JOUR KW - Applied Microbiology KW - Biotechnology KW - Diagnostic Technique in Health Technology AU - van Hooij A AU - Fat E AU - de Jong D AU - Khatun M AU - Soren S AU - Chowdhury A AU - Roy JC AU - Alam K AU - Kim J AU - Richardus JH AU - Geluk A AU - Corstjens P AB -

To end the decade-long, obstinately stagnant number of new leprosy cases, there is an urgent need for field-applicable diagnostic tools that detect infection with , leprosy's etiologic agent. Since immunity against is characterized by humoral and cellular markers, we developed a lateral flow test measuring multiple host proteins based on six previously identified biomarkers for various leprosy phenotypes. This multi-biomarker test (MBT) demonstrated feasibility of quantitative detection of six host serum proteins simultaneously, jointly allowing discrimination of patients with multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy from control individuals in high and low leprosy endemic areas. Pilot testing of fingerstick blood showed similar MBT performance in point-of-care (POC) settings as observed for plasma and serum. Thus, this newly developed prototype MBT measures six biomarkers covering immunity against across the leprosy spectrum. The MBT thereby provides the basis for immunodiagnostic POC tests for leprosy with potential for other (infectious) diseases as well.

BT - iScience C1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33490914 DA - 01/2021 DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2020.102006 IS - 1 J2 - iScience LA - eng N2 -

To end the decade-long, obstinately stagnant number of new leprosy cases, there is an urgent need for field-applicable diagnostic tools that detect infection with , leprosy's etiologic agent. Since immunity against is characterized by humoral and cellular markers, we developed a lateral flow test measuring multiple host proteins based on six previously identified biomarkers for various leprosy phenotypes. This multi-biomarker test (MBT) demonstrated feasibility of quantitative detection of six host serum proteins simultaneously, jointly allowing discrimination of patients with multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy from control individuals in high and low leprosy endemic areas. Pilot testing of fingerstick blood showed similar MBT performance in point-of-care (POC) settings as observed for plasma and serum. Thus, this newly developed prototype MBT measures six biomarkers covering immunity against across the leprosy spectrum. The MBT thereby provides the basis for immunodiagnostic POC tests for leprosy with potential for other (infectious) diseases as well.

PY - 2021 EP - 102006 T2 - iScience TI - Prototype multi-biomarker test for point-of-care leprosy diagnostics. UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7807156/pdf/main.pdf VL - 24 SN - 2589-0042 ER -