Breathprinting Reveals Malaria-Associated Biomarkers and Mosquito Attractants
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ABSTRACT: Current evidence suggests that malaria infection could alter patient breath metabolites, a phenomenon that could be exploited to create a breath-based diagnostic test. Indications include the preferential attraction of the Anopheles mosquito vector upon infection and a distinct breath profile with the progression of experimental, sub-microscopic malaria. However, these observations have yet to be extended to the clinic. To investigate whether natural human malaria infection leads to a characteristic breath profile, we performed a field study in Malawi. Breath volatiles from pediatric patients with and without uncomplicated falciparum malaria were analyzed by thermal desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Using an unbiased, correlation-based analysis, we find that children with malaria have a distinct shift in overall breath composition. Leveraging these differences, highly accurate classification of infection status was achieved with a suite of six compounds. In addition, we find that malaria-infected children have significantly higher breath levels of two mosquito-attractant terpenes, α-pinene and 3-carene. Thus, our work attests to the viability of breath analysis for malaria diagnosis, identifies candidate compounds for follow-up studies, and identifies biologically plausible chemical mediators for increased mosquito attraction to malaria-infected patients.
ORGANISM(S): Human Homo Sapiens
TISSUE(S): Breath
SUBMITTER: Chad Schaber
PROVIDER: ST000883 | MetabolomicsWorkbench | Sun Oct 08 00:00:00 BST 2017
REPOSITORIES: MetabolomicsWorkbench
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