TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of Breath Specimens for Biomarkers of Plasmodium falciparum Infection
AU - Berna, Amalia Z.
AU - McCarthy, James S.
AU - Wang, Rosalind X.
AU - Saliba, Kevin J.
AU - Bravo, Florence G.
AU - Cassells, Julie
AU - Padovan, Benjamin
AU - Trowell, Stephen C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Author.
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - Currently, the majority of diagnoses of malaria rely on a combination of the patient's clinical presentation and the visualization of parasites on a stained blood film. Breath offers an attractive alternative to blood as the basis for simple, noninvasive diagnosis of infectious diseases. In this study, breath samples were collected from individuals during controlled malaria to determine whether specific malaria-associated volatiles could be detected in breath. We identified 9 compounds whose concentrations varied significantly over the course of malaria: carbon dioxide, isoprene, acetone, benzene, cyclohexanone, and 4 thioethers. The latter group, consisting of allyl methyl sulfide, 1-methylthio-propane, (Z)-1-methylthio-1-propene, and (E)-1-methylthio-1-propene, had not previously been associated with any disease or condition. Before the availability of antimalarial drug treatment, there was evidence of concurrent 48-hour cyclical changes in the levels of both thioethers and parasitemia. When thioether concentrations were subjected to a phase shift of 24 hours, a direct correlation between the parasitemia and volatile levels was revealed. Volatile levels declined monotonically approximately 6.5 hours after initial drug treatment, correlating with clearance of parasitemia. No thioethers were detected in in vitro cultures of Plasmodium falciparum. The metabolic origin of the thioethers is not known, but results suggest that interplay between host and parasite metabolic pathways is involved in the production of these thioethers.
AB - Currently, the majority of diagnoses of malaria rely on a combination of the patient's clinical presentation and the visualization of parasites on a stained blood film. Breath offers an attractive alternative to blood as the basis for simple, noninvasive diagnosis of infectious diseases. In this study, breath samples were collected from individuals during controlled malaria to determine whether specific malaria-associated volatiles could be detected in breath. We identified 9 compounds whose concentrations varied significantly over the course of malaria: carbon dioxide, isoprene, acetone, benzene, cyclohexanone, and 4 thioethers. The latter group, consisting of allyl methyl sulfide, 1-methylthio-propane, (Z)-1-methylthio-1-propene, and (E)-1-methylthio-1-propene, had not previously been associated with any disease or condition. Before the availability of antimalarial drug treatment, there was evidence of concurrent 48-hour cyclical changes in the levels of both thioethers and parasitemia. When thioether concentrations were subjected to a phase shift of 24 hours, a direct correlation between the parasitemia and volatile levels was revealed. Volatile levels declined monotonically approximately 6.5 hours after initial drug treatment, correlating with clearance of parasitemia. No thioethers were detected in in vitro cultures of Plasmodium falciparum. The metabolic origin of the thioethers is not known, but results suggest that interplay between host and parasite metabolic pathways is involved in the production of these thioethers.
KW - (E)-1-methylthio-1-propene
KW - Malaria
KW - diagnostic tool.
KW - machine learning
KW - odors
KW - thioethers
KW - volatile organic compound
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943371767&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/infdis/jiv176
DO - 10.1093/infdis/jiv176
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-1899
VL - 212
SP - 1120
EP - 1128
JO - Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - Journal of Infectious Diseases
IS - 7
ER -