Differential diagnosis of human lymphatic filariasis using PCR-RFLP.

Filariasis is still a public health problem in tropical countries. The most common causative agents of human filariasis are Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi. Traditional methods used to detect filarial parasites in human, animal and vector populations are tedious, time consuming, and confer little guarantee of sensitivity and species specificity. We have developed a rapid and specific method to detect filarial parasite DNAs in blood and mosquito samples using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The primers used are MF/F and MF/R which amplify a 1.5 kb glutathione peroxidase gene of filarial worms. Using the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique, these PCR products will be further digested with restriction enzymes either Hpa I, Pst I, Alu I or Hinf I to differentiate the genus of filaria. This PCR-RFLP technique can be apply to use in diagnosis and to differentiate between species of filaria in humans the reservoir host and the mosquito vector in endemic areas Copyright 2000 Academic Press.