Evaluation of different primers and DNA preparations for molecular diagnosis of human African Trypanosomosis

This study was aimed at improving the diagnosis of Human African Trypanosomosis (HAT or sleeping sickness). We used the PCR on blood samples to compare two different methods of extraction/purification of DNA (chelex and DNA easy), and several PCR techniques (TBR 1-2, TgsGP, ESAG 6-7). The comparisons related to subjects taken at the time of medical surveillance in the mid-west of Ivory Coast and Benin: patients (Trypanosomes seen by parasitological tests), subjects with positive serologic tests but negative with parasitological tests (called sero-positives), negative subjects in serology and parasitology, and healthy volunteers living in Europe. The best combination was TBR used with Chelex. Under these conditions, the PCR test is simple, easily usable in a tropical laboratory, more sensitive than the parasitological examinations, and could help with the early detection of the cases, the decision to treat a patient, and with the post-therapeutic follow-up to detect cases of relapse. However, the limits of specificity and its high cost still restrict its use at the research laboratories