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Microfluidics-based approaches to the isolation of African trypanosomes

Barrett, MP; Cooper, JM; Regnault, C; Holm, SH; Beech, JP; Tegenfeldt, JO; Hochstetter, A; (2017) Microfluidics-based approaches to the isolation of African trypanosomes. Pathogens , 6 (4) 10.3390/pathogens6040047. Green open access

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Abstract

African trypanosomes are responsible for significant levels of disease in both humans and animals. The protozoan parasites are free-living flagellates, usually transmitted by arthropod vectors, including the tsetse fly. In the mammalian host they live in the bloodstream and, in the case of human-infectious species, later invade the central nervous system. Diagnosis of the disease requires the positive identification of parasites in the bloodstream. This can be particularly challenging where parasite numbers are low, as is often the case in peripheral blood. Enriching parasites from body fluids is an important part of the diagnostic pathway. As more is learned about the physicochemical properties of trypanosomes, this information can be exploited through use of different microfluidic-based approaches to isolate the parasites from blood or other fluids. Here, we discuss recent advances in the use of microfluidics to separate trypanosomes from blood and to isolate single trypanosomes for analyses including drug screening.

Type: Article
Title: Microfluidics-based approaches to the isolation of African trypanosomes
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/pathogens6040047
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Keywords: trypanosomes; microfluidics; separation; isolation; DLD; dielectrophoresis; drug testing; concentration ramping; optical trap; diagnosis
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10114500
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