Detection of Parasites Using Traditional and Advanced Molecular Techniques

Dear Colleagues,

The global death toll from parasitic diseases has been reduced, partly due to the widespread use of molecular tests in the diagnosis, therapy, and epidemiological research of these illnesses. Techniques, such as optical microscopy, are employed in the laboratory for the morphological identification of parasites, which is the standard practice in parasitology. Nonetheless, the inconsistency in detecting these parasite forms may reduce the sensitivity of such approaches. To overcome these obstacles, molecular techniques are used to identify parasites that cause parasitic illnesses. Molecular approaches have been demonstrated in several studies to be very effective and sensitive in detecting parasite infections. The utility of molecular techniques in epidemiological studies is particularly striking because studies of this nature involve the genetic diversity of populations, their susceptibility to infection and the possibility of mutation, the geographical spread of parasite illnesses, and their association with hosts and clinical manifestations. 

Parasites can be identified using a variety of laboratory diagnostic assays, including the microsatellite marker method, PCR, AFLP, real-time PCR, RAPD, RFLP, LAMP, Luminex xMAP-based technology(nucleic-acid-based multiplex assays), and CRISPR-based detection. Many molecular epidemiology approaches are available for parasite detection and strain typing. These approaches include nested ITS-PCR, which is based on ITS gene-size variation, and MGE-PCR, which is based on mobile genetic element location variation (MGE).

Nanotechnology and nanomaterial advancements provide novel, adaptable, and intriguing diagnostic platforms. Nucleic-acid-detection techniques for in vitro molecular diagnostics using nanobiosensors and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) have been developed. The chip-based method employs SERS-active Nanowave chips for single-step multiplex detection. Sandwich hybridization using magnetic beads, target sequences, and SERS nanorattle nanoparticles is used in the nanoparticle-based method.

Recent breakthroughs in molecular methods have aided in the identification of taxonomic groupings at all levels (species, subspecies, populations, strains, and isolates). Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of amplicons allows for massive parallelization of sequencing operations and more efficient identification of low-abundance genotypes in mixed infections. Metabarcoding is a technique for identifying numerous species inside a sample at high throughput. It is a popular approach for identifying bacterial populations because it targets the ubiquitous bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene. Recent research has revealed that eukaryotic species may be similarly described by targeting the 18S rRNA gene.

This Special Issue aims to provide original research and reviews on the utility of molecular techniques in parasite detection, identification of taxonomic groupings at all levels (species, subspecies, populations, strains, and isolates), and epidemiological studies.

Prof. Dr. Saeed El-Ashram
Dr. Abdulaziz Alouffi
Prof. Dr. Sobhy Elsayed Hassab El-Nabi
Guest Editors

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• polymerase chain reaction
• random amplified polymorphic DNA
• amplified fragment-length
• polymorphism
• restriction fragment-length polymorphism
• microsatellite marker method
• luminex xMAP-based technology
• nanobiosensors
• surface-enhanced Raman scattering
• CRISPR-based detection
• next-generation sequencing
• epidemiology
• drug resistance
• diagnosis
• population structure
• identification of taxonomic groupings