Research Projects

Malaria is one of the most infectious diseases caused by protozoan parasite of genus Plasmodium, infecting over 150 species including mammals, birds and reptiles [1]. According to world health organization (WHO) malarial reports, the predicted number of infected cases are 263 million and death cases are 597,000, in the year 2023. In 2025, the epidemiology of malaria reflects 80.5% decrease in malarial cases in India however challenge remains in achieving zero transmission by 2027, especially in resource limited remote areas. Malarial parasites are host specific and humans are natural host for four species including Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale, while Plasmodium knowlesi is naturally found in long-tailed, (Macaca fasicularis) and pig-tailed (Macaca nemestrina) macaques and not in humans. Recently, it was discovered that Plasmodium knowlesi cause malaria in humans [2,3]. P. Knowlesi was first studied and isolated by Robert Knowles, Director of Tropical school of medicine, Kolkata, India in 1930 and was named by Sinton and Mulligan [4]. This species is widely distributed in southeast Asia. P. Knowlesi is often associated with other life-threatening complications such as respiratory distress, liver or renal failure and even death. P. knowlesi also results in zoonotic transmission. Thus, timely diagnosis of this species is of utmost importance. As of now, plasmodium species are detected with the help of microscopy examination, PCR, and rapid diagnostic kits (RDTs). However, microscopy is not preferred for P. knowlesi because of morphological resemblance of early trophozoites of P. Knowlesi with P. falciparum and mature trophozoites, schizonts and gametocytes are indistinguishable with P. malariae [5] whereas there are no reported RDTs for P. Knowlesi detection. RDTs are available for only other species. Therefore, nested PCR is the only method employed for its detection but it is time consuming and cannot be deployed for field detection purpose. To overcome these problems, an electrochemical aptasensor is proposed towards potential biomarker (merozoite surface protein) pkMSP-133 (a cleaved product of pkMSP-142), in human serum samples. pkMSP- 133 is soluble protein and released into blood when parasite invades and can be detected as free antigen in patient serum. All other proteins related to P. knowlesi are not present as free antigens, therefore, till now its diagnostic remains inconclusive. In summary, pkMSP-133 is a potential biomarker, proposed in support of P. knowlesi’s timely detection.