{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"medRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,16]],"date-time":"2026-01-16T12:16:10Z","timestamp":1768565770142,"version":"3.49.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,26]]},"group-title":"Infectious Diseases (except HIV\/AIDS)","reference-count":44,"publisher":"openRxiv","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,26]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Human babesiosis is a rapidly emerging and potentially fatal tick-borne disease caused by intraerythrocytic apicomplexan parasites of the\n                  <jats:italic>Babesia<\/jats:italic>\n                  genus. Among the various species of\n                  <jats:italic>Babesia<\/jats:italic>\n                  that infect humans,\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  has been found to cause severe and life-threatening infections. Detection of active\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection is critical for accurate diagnosis and effective management of the disease. While molecular assays for the detection of\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection in blood are available, a reliable strategy to detect biomarkers of active infection has not yet been developed. Here, we report the development of the first\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  antigen capture assays that rely on the detection of two\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  -exported immunodominant antigens, BdV234 and BdV38. The assays were validated using blood samples from cultured parasites in human erythrocytes and\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  -infected laboratory mice at different parasitemia levels and following therapy. The assays display high specificity with no cross-reactivity with\n                  <jats:italic>B. microti<\/jats:italic>\n                  ,\n                  <jats:italic>B. divergens<\/jats:italic>\n                  ,\n                  <jats:italic>Babesia<\/jats:italic>\n                  MO1, or\n                  <jats:italic>P. falciparum.<\/jats:italic>\n                  The assay also demonstrates high sensitivity, detecting as low as 115 infected erythrocytes\/\u00b5l of blood. Screening of 1,731 blood samples from diverse biorepositories, including previously identified Lyme and\/or\n                  <jats:italic>B. microti<\/jats:italic>\n                  positive human samples and new specimens from field mice, showed no evidence of\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection in these samples. The assays could be useful in diverse diagnostic scenarios, including point-of-care testing for early\n                  <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                  infection detection in patients, field tests for screening reservoir hosts, and high-throughput screening such as blood collected for transfusion.\n                <\/jats:p>\n                <jats:sec>\n                  <jats:title>Short summary<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    We developed two ELISA-based assays, BdACA38 and BdACA234, for detecting\n                    <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                    , a potentially fatal tick-borne parasite causing human babesiosis. The assays target two immunodominant antigens, BdV234 and BdV38, demonstrating high specificity (no cross-reactivity with other\n                    <jats:italic>Babesia<\/jats:italic>\n                    species or\n                    <jats:italic>Plasmodium falciparum<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) and sensitivity (detecting as low as 115 infected erythrocytes\/\u00b5l). The assays were validated using in vitro-cultured parasites and infected mice. Screening diverse blood samples showed no evidence of\n                    <jats:italic>B. duncani<\/jats:italic>\n                    active infection among 1,731 human and field mice blood samples collected from the north-eastern, midwestern, and western US. These assays offer potential in diverse diagnostic scenarios, including early patient detection, reservoir animal screening, and transfusion-transmitted babesiosis prevention.\n                  <\/jats:p>\n                <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1101\/2024.03.25.24304816","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,26]],"date-time":"2024-03-26T13:05:04Z","timestamp":1711458304000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Set of Diagnostic Tests for Detection of Active\n                  <i>Babesia duncani<\/i>\n                  Infection"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Meenal","family":"Chand","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pratap","family":"Vydyam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anasuya C.","family":"Pal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jose","family":"Thekkiniath","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dounia","family":"Darif","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zeng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jae-Yeon","family":"Choi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ruben","family":"Magni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alessandra","family":"Luchini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Laura","family":"Tonnetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth J","family":"Horn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Danielle M","family":"Tufts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5028-1400","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Choukri","family":"Ben Mamoun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2024032803350847000_2024.03.25.24304816v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature06536"},{"key":"2024032803350847000_2024.03.25.24304816v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jme\/tjv237"},{"key":"2024032803350847000_2024.03.25.24304816v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/ilar\/ilx005"},{"key":"2024032803350847000_2024.03.25.24304816v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.15585\/mmwr.mm6717e1"},{"key":"2024032803350847000_2024.03.25.24304816v1.5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Renard I , Ben Mamoun C . 2021. 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