Browsing by Author "Boakye, D.A"

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    A quick and cost effective method for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium ulcerans infection
    (2012-01-18) De- Souza, D.K.; Quaye, C.; Mosi, L.; Addo, P.; Boakye, D.A
    Abstract Background Buruli ulcer (BU), a neglected tropical skin disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, has been reported in over 30 countries worldwide and is highly endemic in rural West and Central Africa. The mode of transmission remains unknown and treatment is the only alternative to disease control. Early and effective treatment to prevent the morbid effects of the disease depends on early diagnosis; however, current diagnosis based on clinical presentation and microscopy has to be confirmed by PCR and other tests in reference laboratories. As such confirmed BU diagnosis is either late, inefficient, time consuming or very expensive, and there is the need for an early diagnosis tool at point of care facilities. In this paper we report on a simple, quick and inexpensive diagnostic test that could be used at point of care facilities, in resource-poor settings. Methods The methodology employed is based on the loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique. Four sets of Primers, targeting the mycolactone encoding plasmid genome sequence of M. ulcerans were designed. The BU-LAMP assay was developed and tested on five M. ulcerans strains from patients in Ghana and two American Type Culture Control (ATCC) reference isolates; Ghana #970321 (D19F9) and Benin #990826 (D27D14). We also tested the assay on other closely related, mycolactone-producing mycobacterial strains; M. marinum 1218, M. marinum DL240490, M. liflandii and M. pseudoshotsii, as well as experimentally infected laboratory animal and clinical samples. Results The results revealed a high specificity of the BU-LAMP assay for selectively detecting M. ulcerans. Compared to the conventional IS-2404 PCR, the new assay is cheaper and simpler and ten times more sensitive. Test results can be obtained within 1 hour. Conclusions This study indicates that the BU-LAMP assay could be suitable for early disease diagnosis and application in low-resource health facilities.
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    Suzuki, T.; Department of Parasitology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of GhanaGhana; email: 0897vip@tmd.ac.jp
    (Tropical Medicine and Health, 2014-12) Agyapong, J; Chabi, J; Ablorde, A; Kartey, W.D; Osei, J.H.N; de Souza, D.K; Dadzie, S; Boakye, D.A; Ohta, N; Hadi, M.P; Suzuki T
    Mosquito eggs laid within two hours are necessary for transgenic (injection) studies, because mosquito eggs become hard after that period. Thus, in order to have eggs available within this two-hour window, it is important to understand the ovipositional behavior of Anopheles gambiae s.s.. In the present study, the ovipositional behavior of An. gambiae s.s. (Kisumu) was investigated in several different conditions: age of mosquitoes, time post blood meal to access oviposition substrate, and light conditions. Two groups of mosquitoes, 3–5 days old and 9–11 days old were blood-fed. For those mosquito groups, an oviposition dish was set either at 48 hours or 72 hours after the blood meal either in a light condition or in an artificial dark condition. The number of laid eggs was compared among the different conditions. The 3–5 day-old mosquitoes apparently produced a higher number of eggs than 9–11 day-old mosquitoes, while there was no significant difference between the two groups. The number of laid eggs per one surviving blood-fed mosquito in the dark condition was significantly higher than that in the light condition (p = 0.03). Providing an oviposition dish at 72 hours after blood meal resulted in a significantly higher number of laid eggs per one surviving blood-fed mosquito than at 48 hours after blood meal (p = 0.03). In conclusion, the optimal condition to have readily available egg supply for transgenic analysis was as follows: 3–5 day-old mosquitoes with an oviposition dish placed at 72 hours after the blood meal in a dark environment. © 2014 by The Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine.