Evaluation of the VecTest Malaria Antigen Panel assay for the detection of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax circumsporozoite protein in anopheline mosquitoes in Thailand

J Med Entomol. 2004 Mar;41(2):209-14. doi: 10.1603/0022-2585-41.2.209.

Abstract

We evaluated the performance of the VecTest Malaria Antigen Panel (V-MAP) assay for the detection of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax (variants 210 and 247) circumsporozoite protein in anopheline mosquitoes in Thailand. The V-MAP assay is a rapid, one-step procedure using a 'dipstick' wicking test strip. The circumsporozoite (CS) ELISA was used as the reference standard. Mosquitoes evaluated in the study included field-collected specimens (n = 930) and laboratory-reared specimens that had been fed on blood collected from patients with and without Plasmodium gametocytes (n = 4,110) or on cultured P. falciparum gametocytes (n = 262). Field-collected mosquitoes were triturated individually or in pools of 2-5 and tested using 613 V-MAP assays. Laboratory-reared specimens were tested individually using 4,372 V-MAP assays. Assay performance depended on the species of Plasmodium and the number of sporozoites used as the cut-off. For P. falciparum, optimal performance was achieved using a cut-off of 150 sporozoites (sensitivity = 100%, specificity = 99.2%, and accuracy = 0.99). For P. vivax variant 210, optimal performance was also achieved using a cut-off of 150 sporozoites (sensitivity = 94.8%, specificity = 94.5%, and accuracy = 0.95). We were unable to develop a standard-curve for the CS-ELISA using P. vivax variant 247 because of a lack of sporozoites; however, using a cut-off of 30 pg P. vivax 247 antigen (mosquitoes with less than this amount of antigen were considered negative), assay performance (sensitivity = 94.3%, specificity = 99.2%, and accuracy = 0.99) was comparable to that achieved for P. falciparum and P. vivax 210. These results clearly demonstrate that the V-MAP assay performs at an acceptable level and offers practical advantages for field workers needing to make rapid surveys of malaria vectors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Culicidae / parasitology*
  • Plasmodium falciparum / isolation & purification*
  • Plasmodium vivax / isolation & purification*
  • Protozoan Proteins / analysis*
  • Reagent Strips
  • Thailand

Substances

  • Protozoan Proteins
  • Reagent Strips
  • circumsporozoite protein, Protozoan