Journal Article

Risk of transfusion-transmitted malaria: evaluation of commercial ELISA kits for the detection of anti-Plasmodium antibodies in candidate blood donors

Prato, Marco, Bruschi, Fabrizio, Perandin, Francesca, Bisoffi, Zeno, Mangano, Valentina D., Tiberti, Natalia, Migliaccio, Franca, Guerriero, Massimo, Degani, Monica, Verra, Federica, Tais, Stefano, Bargagna, Lucia

2019

Overview

Background Transfusion with Plasmodium -infected blood represents a risk for malaria transmission, a rare but severe event. Several non-endemic countries implement a strategy for the screening of candidate blood donors including questionnaire for the identification of at-risk subjects and laboratory testing of blood samples, often serology-based, with temporary deferral from donation for individuals with a positive result. In Italy, the most recent legislation, issued in November 2015, introduced the use of serological tests for the detection of anti- Plasmodium antibodies. Methods In the absence of a gold standard for malaria serology, the aim of this work was to evaluate five commercial ELISA kits, and to determine their accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) in comparison to immuno-fluorescence antibody test (IFAT), and their agreement (concordance of results). Serum samples from malaria patients or from subjects with malaria history (N = 64), malaria naïve patients with other parasitic infections (N = 15), malaria naïve blood donors (N = 8) and malaria exposed candidate blood donors (N = 36) were tested. Results The specificity of all ELISA kits was 100%, while sensitivity ranged between 53 and 64% when compared to IFAT on malaria patients samples. When tested on candidate blood donors’ samples, ELISA kits showed highly variable agreement (42–94%) raising the possibility that the same individual could be included or excluded from donation depending on the test in use by the transfusion centre. Conclusions These preliminary results indicate how the lack of a gold standard for malaria serology must be taken into account in the application and future revision of current legislation. There is need of developing more sensitive serological assays. Moreover, the adoption of a unique serological test at national level is recommended, as well as the development of screening algorithms based on multiple laboratory tests, including molecular assays.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Algorithms / Antibodies / Antigens / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Blood / Blood & organ donations / Blood donation / Blood donors / Blood Donors - statistics & numerical data / Blood transfusion / Complications and side effects / Control / Detection / Disease transmission / ELISA / Entomology / Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay / Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay - instrumentation / Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay - methods / Enzymes / Evaluation / Fluorescence / Human diseases / IFAT / Immunoglobulins / Infections / Infectious Diseases / Italy / Laboratories / Laboratory tests / Legislation / Malaria / Malaria - diagnosis / Malaria - parasitology / Malaria - transmission / Mass Screening - instrumentation / Mass Screening - methods / Microbiology / Microscopy / Parasites / Parasitic diseases / Parasitology / Plasmodium / Plasmodium - isolation & purification / Public Health / Questionnaires / Retrospective Studies / Risk factors / Sensitivity and Specificity / Serological tests / Serology / Serum / Specificity / Transfusion / Transfusion transmitted malaria / Tropical Medicine / Vector-borne diseases