title: Evaluation of a synthetic oligonucleotide probe for diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum infections.
abstract: A radiolabeled synthetic oligonucleotide was evaluated as a diagnostic probe specific for Plasmodium falciparum using blood samples lysed directly on nitrocellulose filters. The probe technique successfully diagnosed malaria in experimentally infected chimpanzees that had 0.001% parasitemias (50 parasites/microliter) as determined by blood smears, and in 1 chimpanzee whose blood smear was negative, but whose blood was culture-positive for P. falciparum. In a double blind study of 50 patient samples from the Philippines, the probe results correlated well with blood smear results when the autoradiographs were read after 4-8 hr exposure. The results indicate that the oligonucleotide probe may be useful in the rapid and specific diagnosis of P. falciparum infection.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides