DNA-Detection Based Diagnostics for Taenia solium Cysticercosis in Porcine

Abstract

Porcine cysticercosis is a neglected and underestimated disease caused by metacestode stage of the tapeworm, Taenia solium (T. solium). Pigs are the intermediate hosts of T. solium while human are the only known de nitive host. ­e disease has an economic consequence because the a ected farmers lose 50−100 percent of the value of pigs if they are infected. Lack of a ordable, easy to use, sensitive, and speci c molecular diagnostic tools for detection of infections at the farm level hinders the control of porcine cysticercosis in endemic areas. A number of DNA based diagnostic assays for the detection of T. solium infections in pigs have been developed and evaluated but none is applicable at low-resource areas where this disease is an endemic. ­is review focuses mainly on DNA based diagnostic methods, their sensitivity, speci city, and utilization at low-resource areas.We summarized data from 65 studies on the current DNA-detection based diagnostic techniques for T. solium cysticercosis in porcine, published in English between the years 2000–2018, identi ed through PubMed search engine. Of the di erent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays developed for identi cation of T. solium, the most sensitive (97−100%) and speci c (100%) one is nested PCR. One study utilized loop-mediated isothermal ampli cation (LAMP) as a diagnostic tool for the detection of T. solium infections though its eld use was never determined. Recombinase polymerase ampli cation (RPA) has been evaluated as a diagnostic tool for a variety of diseases, but has never been exploited for the diagnosis of cysticercosis/taeniasis. In conclusion, several molecular methods have been developed and evaluated in lab settings. However, there is need to validate these methods as a diagnostic tool to diagnose porcine cysticercosis in low-resource areas.