Journal
EXPERT REVIEW OF MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS
Volume 17, Issue 7, Pages 699-710Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS
DOI: 10.1080/14737159.2017.1338566
Keywords
Chagas disease; Trypanosoma cruzi; molecular detection; quantitative PCR; point-of-care; isothermal amplification
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Funding
- Departament d'Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain [AGAUR] [2014SGR26]
- Instituto de Salud Carlos III RICET Network for Cooperative Research in Tropical Diseases [MICINN, Spain] [RD12/0018/0010 ISCIII]
- Generalitat de Catalunya CERCA Programme
- Argentinian National Agency of Science and Technology [PICT 2014-1188, PICT V 2015-0074]
- European Commission
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Introduction: Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It affects 7 million people, mainly in Latin America. Diagnosis is usually made serologically, but at some clinical scenarios serology cannot be used. Then, molecular detection is required for early detection of congenital transmission, treatment response follow up, and diagnosis of immune-suppression reactivation. However, present tests are technically demanding and require well-equipped laboratories which make them unfeasible in low-resources endemic regions. Areas covered: Available molecular tools for detection of T. cruzi DNA, paying particular attention to quantitative PCR protocols, and to the latest developments of user-friendly molecular diagnostic methodologies. Expert commentary: In the absence of appropriate biomarkers, molecular diagnosis is the only option for the assessment of treatment response. Besides, it is very useful for the early detection of acute infections, like congenital cases. Since current Chagas disease molecular tests are restricted to referential labs, research efforts must focus in the implementation of easy-to-use diagnostic tools in order to overcome the access to diagnosis gap.
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