TY - JOUR
T1 - Breathprinting Reveals Malaria-Associated Biomarkers and Mosquito Attractants
AU - Schaber, Chad L.
AU - Katta, Nalin
AU - Bollinger, Lucy B.
AU - Mwale, Mwawi
AU - Mlotha-Mitole, Rachel
AU - Trehan, Indi
AU - Raman, Barani
AU - Odom John, Audrey R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants R01AI103280 and R21AI123808-01 to A. O. J.), the Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital (to A. O. J., I. T., and B. R.), the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (to A. O. J.), and the Washington University Monsanto Excellence Fund (to C. L. S.).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/4/23
Y1 - 2018/4/23
N2 - Current evidence suggests that malarial infection could alter metabolites in the breath of patients, a phenomenon that could be exploited to create a breath-based diagnostic test. However, no study has explored this in a clinical setting. To investigate whether natural human malarial infection leads to a characteristic breath profile, we performed a field study in Malawi. Breath volatiles from children with and those without uncomplicated falciparum malaria were analyzed by thermal desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Using an unbiased, correlation-based analysis, we found that children with malaria have a distinct shift in overall breath composition. Highly accurate classification of infection status was achieved with a suite of 6 compounds. In addition, we found that infection correlates with significantly higher breath levels of 2 mosquito-attractant terpenes, α-pinene and 3-carene. These findings attest to the viability of breath analysis for malaria diagnosis, identify candidate biomarkers, and identify plausible chemical mediators for increased mosquito attraction to patients infected with malaria parasites.
AB - Current evidence suggests that malarial infection could alter metabolites in the breath of patients, a phenomenon that could be exploited to create a breath-based diagnostic test. However, no study has explored this in a clinical setting. To investigate whether natural human malarial infection leads to a characteristic breath profile, we performed a field study in Malawi. Breath volatiles from children with and those without uncomplicated falciparum malaria were analyzed by thermal desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Using an unbiased, correlation-based analysis, we found that children with malaria have a distinct shift in overall breath composition. Highly accurate classification of infection status was achieved with a suite of 6 compounds. In addition, we found that infection correlates with significantly higher breath levels of 2 mosquito-attractant terpenes, α-pinene and 3-carene. These findings attest to the viability of breath analysis for malaria diagnosis, identify candidate biomarkers, and identify plausible chemical mediators for increased mosquito attraction to patients infected with malaria parasites.
KW - Malaria
KW - biomarkers
KW - breath
KW - terpenes
KW - volatile organic compounds
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046290353&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/infdis/jiy072
DO - 10.1093/infdis/jiy072
M3 - Article
C2 - 29415208
AN - SCOPUS:85046290353
VL - 217
SP - 1553
EP - 1560
JO - Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - Journal of Infectious Diseases
SN - 0022-1899
IS - 10
ER -