Explanation of the Test

Malaria is a serious, sometimes fatal, parasitic disease characterized by fever, chills, and anemia and is caused by a parasite that is transmitted from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. There are four kinds of malaria that can infect humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. In humans, the parasites (called sporozoites) migrate to the liver where they mature and release another form, the merozoites. The disease is now occurs in more than 90 countries worldwide, and it is estimated that there are over 500 million clinical cases and 2.7 million malaria-caused deaths per year. At the present, malaria is diagnosed by looking for the parasites in a drop of blood. Blood will be put onto a microscope slide and stained so that the parasites will be visible under a microscope.

 The Malaria Antigen Test contains a membrane strip, which is pre-coated with two polyclonal antibodies as two separate lines across a test strip.  One polyclonal antibodies (test line 1) are specific to the lactate dehydrogenase of  P. falciparum and the other polyclonal antibodies (test line 2) are pan specific to the lactate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium species(P. falciparum, vivax, malariae, ovale). Conjugate pad is dispensed with polyclonal antibodies, which is pan specific to the lactate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium species.

Polyclonal antibodies pan specific to the lactate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium species have no cross-reactivity with the human lactate dehydrogenase, because polyclonal antibodies to the lactate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium vivax and P. falcifarum was adsorbed to human lactate dehydrogenase. Polyclonal antibodies to lactate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium falciparum have no cross-reactivity with the lactate dehydrogenase of human and P. vivax, because polyclonal antibodies to lactate dehydrogenase of Plasmodium falciparum  were adsorbed to lactate dehydrogenase of  human and P. vivax.

So the Malaria Antigen Test is designed for the differential diagnosis between Plasmodium falcifarum and the other Plasmodium species