IgG Antibody Responses Are Preferential Compared With IgM for Use as Serological Markers for Detecting Recent Exposure to <i>Plasmodium vivax</i> Infection
Rhea J. Longley, Michael White, Jessica Brewster, Zoe Liu, Caitlin Bourke, Eizo Takashima, Matthias Harbers, Wai‐Hong Tham, Julie Healer, Chetan E. Chitnis, Wuelton Marcelo Monteiro, Marcus Lacerda, Jetsumon Sattabongkot, Takafumi Tsuboi, Ivo Müeller
Abstract
Abstract To achieve malaria elimination, new tools are required to explicitly target Plasmodium vivax. Recently, a novel panel of P. vivax proteins were identified and validated as serological markers for detecting recent exposure to P. vivax within the last 9 months. In order to improve the sensitivity and specificity of these markers, immunoglobulin M (IgM) in addition to immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody responses were compared with a down-selected panel of 20 P. vivax proteins. IgM was tested using archival plasma samples from observational cohort studies conducted in malaria-endemic regions of Thailand and Brazil. IgM responses to these proteins generally had poorer classification performance than IgG.