Identifying Severe Malaria with a new Aptamer-based Rapid diagnostic Test (SMART)

Within the context of personalized medicine, the SMART project seeks to develop a tool to accurately diagnose malaria at any level of healthcare. Worldwide, it is a disease that affects more than 200 million people annually, with a death toll of 400,000. Although Europe has been declared malaria-free, it is now the most common imported parasitic disease in Spain, accounting for around 1,000 cases annually with a not insignificant mortality rate of 1–3%. These figures are unacceptable given that a highly effective treatment exists (artemisinin-based therapies). Therefore, the cornerstone of addressing this disease is diagnosis, since a rapid and accurate approach would enable early treatment initiation and consequently prevent most deaths.

Malaria can be accurately diagnosed using laboratory-based techniques such as microscopy and PCR, but these methods require either days of waiting or highly qualified personnel with specialized equipment. Furthermore, such resources are scarce in endemic countries, and in Spain they are not widely implemented, resulting in delays in diagnosis and treatment. Although rapid antigen tests exist, their sensitivity and specificity are insufficient, with a false negative rate that is higher than desirable, making them unsuitable as a reference technique. Therefore, reliance remains on laboratory-based tests. It is evident that there is a lack of rapid and specific diagnostic tools that can effectively address the current problem.

In response, the research team will develop a test capable of combining the bioanalytical capacity of laboratory tests with the speed and portability offered by a rapid test. To achieve this, the investigators will first conduct a study to select biomarkers from samples obtained from 90 patients (divided among control, severe, and non-severe malaria cases) treated at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona between 2005 and 2020. The objective is to identify markers that, when compared to reference laboratory techniques, can serve as reliable tools to diagnose malaria.

Based on these findings, the team will develop new electrochemical sensors based on aptamers, capable of accurately quantifying the presence of the selected markers in undiluted blood in less than five minutes. Finally, the researchers will incorporate these sensors into a paper-based platform. This technology will meet the required criteria to improve malaria diagnosis: portability for use at any level of care (from health centers to pharmacies) and a high degree of automation enabled by the intrinsic capillarity of paper, allowing operation by anyone without specialized training (e.g., travelers, airport staff, or social institutions).

The investigators believe that the SMART project has the potential to revolutionize malaria diagnosis and make a significant impact on the global management of the disease. Ultimately, this innovation could drastically reduce the number of malaria-related deaths in Spain and worldwide, while also protecting travelers who wish to carry this tool with them.

Project detailsProject Details - ISGlobal

Diagnostics

Nov 2021 — Nov 2024

$225,125

Spain