The performance evaluation of a urine malaria test (UMT) kit for the diagnosis of malaria in individuals with fever in south-east Nigeria: cross-sectional analytical study.

Background: Accurate rapid diagnosis is one of the important steps in the effort to reduce morbidity and mortality of malaria. Blood-specific malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are currently in use but other body fluid specific diagnostic test kits are being developed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance characteristics of a one-step Urine Malaria Test™ (UMT) dipstick in detecting Plasmodium falciparum HRP2, a poly-histidine antigen in urine of febrile patients for malaria diagnosis.

Metabolic analyses elucidate non-trivial gene targets for amplifying dihydroartemisinic acid production in yeast.

Synthetic biology enables metabolic engineering of industrial microbes to synthesize value-added molecules. In this, a major challenge is the efficient redirection of carbon to the desired metabolic pathways. Pinpointing strategies toward this goal requires an in-depth investigation of the metabolic landscape of the organism, particularly primary metabolism, to identify precursor and cofactor availability for the target compound.

Fellowship of the rings: the replication of kinetoplast DNA.

Kinetoplastid protozoa such as trypanosomes and Leishmania are important because they cause human disease. These parasites are named after one of their most unusual features, a mitochondrial DNA known as kinetoplast DNA (kDNA). Unlike all other DNA in nature, kDNA comprises a giant network of interlocked DNA rings with a topology resembling that of medieval chain mail.

Population genetic structure and cladistic analysis of Trypanosoma brucei isolates.

Using a novel multilocus DNA marker analysis method, we studied the population genetic structure of Trypansoma brucei stocks and derived clones isolated from animal and rhodesiense sleeping sickness patients during a national sleeping sickness control program in Mukono district, Uganda. We then performed a cladistic analysis to trace relationships and evolution, using stocks and clones recovered from geographically and temporally matched hosts, including inter-strain comparisons with T. b.

Multiplex-endonuclease genotyping approach (MEGA): a tool for the fine-scale detection of unlinked polymorphic DNA markers.

Restriction enzyme-detectable polymorphisms have been used for assessing genetic differences and generating informative genetic markers. The most detailed fingerprinting analyses have been obtained using the AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) technique, which accesses subsets of polymorphisms at one or two restriction sites. To combine increased discriminatory power with the stringency of polymerase chain reaction amplification, it would be beneficial to access additional independent restriction sites per analysis, and to amplify subsets of DNA restriction fragments with only one pair of oligonucleotide primers.