Advances in Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Technology and Its Necessity to Detect Helminth Infections: An Overview

Use of nucleic acid (NA) markers in clinical diagnosis of infections is rapidly making its way in the clinics and has vast potentialities of improvement of medical facilities for the common man. The traditional methods of diagnosis often leads to erroneous results since the clinical signs of many infections are mostly non-specific and may have multiple sources of origin [1]. Proper treatment depends on proper diagnosis of the disease. The lack of accuracy in the diagnostic methods cost human lives and high rates of morbidity in endemic populations around the world [2]. The situation becomes more serious in case of helminth infections because the identification of helminths has its own complexities. The helminths are usually identified from the eggs or any body part (like the segments of proglottids in cestodes) extruded along with the faeces of the definitive host. However, the eggs and/or the body parts in many cases appear to be similar and create confusions in their proper identification. The eggs of Taenia spp., for example, appear very similar and identification beyond the generic level becomes almost impossible leading to doubtful results [3]. Traditional parasitological diagnostic techniques like Kato-Katz assay for counting eggs in faeces, though inexpensive, lack specificity and sensitivity [4]. An added disadvantage is that the morpho-anatomical characteristics of the helminths reportedly vary with age, development and physiological modifications that augment the confusions [5]. In many cases, as in Diphyllobothrium infections, the entire worm is not available for identification [6]. The intermediate stages of the helminths are also not easily available. They remain encysted in the internal organs of the intermediate hosts and cannot be obtained for antemortem diagnosis [2]. The serology-based diagnostic techniques also come with disadvantages like cross-reactivity and false-positive results [7]. Molecular diagnostic tools provide an effective alternative to these traditional methods and are much higher in specificity and sensitivity [8]. Parasitic DNA serves as molecular biomarkers and has been exploited by the modern technologies to detect their presence in the human host [9]. Human clinical samples like sera [10], plasma [11], urine [12] and faeces [13] have been used to detect the presence of parasitic DNA. However, most of these techniques heavily use the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) that is extremely expensive and can rarely be afforded by the lower income group countries. Therefore, development of costeffective, rapid and sensitive technique is a necessity to provide the benefits of molecular technologies to the common man. Loop mediated isothermal amplification technique (LAMP) seems to be a hope to make molecular technologies feasible to everyone.