A Stable Dried Tube Specimen for Quality Assurance and Training Programs for HIV Rapid Test for Recent Infection.
Microbiol Spectr
; 11(1): e0339822, 2023 02 14.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36648237
ABSTRACT
The HIV epidemic is still one of the world's most serious public health challenges, affecting about 38 million people worldwide, especially in sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian countries. In recent years, tests have been developed to discriminate recent from long-term infection in HIV-infected populations, and these tools can help identify new outbreaks and networks of transmission and target prevention and treatment plans. New rapid tests for recent infection are being deployed in point-of-care settings; however, quality assurance programs need to be implemented to ensure consistency and reliability of the results. We have developed a dried tube specimen (DTS) stabilized with disaccharide trehalose as a quality control reagent for rapid recency testing that can be stored unrefrigerated prior to reconstitution at temperatures up to 37°C for up to 12 weeks. Analysis of 10 trehalose-stabilized DTSs showed that they maintained the same recency classification in all of the samples stored at 4°C and 37°C up to 12 weeks and at 56°C for 2 weeks, while the DTSs prepared without trehalose changed their classification from long-term to recent or recent to negative after storage at 37°C for 12 weeks. Development of DTS quality control reagents will facilitate proficiency and training programs, particularly in settings without cold chain capability in field environments. IMPORTANCE Implementation of stabilized dried tube specimens (DTSs) for quality control and training would facilitate HIV recency programs, especially in point-of-care settings without cold chain availability. This study shows that addition of the disaccharide trehalose to DTSs prior to drying the samples increased stability of the samples across a range of temperatures. This finding provides an affordable way to increase the availability of these key reagents for quality control in resource-constrained settings.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Trealose
/
Infecções por HIV
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article