ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Parasitol.
Sec. Parasite Diagnostics
Assessing the performance of TRX and DUF148 antigens for detection of prepatent Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) infection in dogs
Provisionally accepted
Hassan Hakimi1*
Pabasara Weerarathne1Meriam N. Saleh1
Raquel Rech1Richard Ngandolo Bongo Nare2Philip Ouakou Tchindebet3Sidouin K. Metinou4Jessica M. van Loben Sels5
Lucienne Tritten6
Guilherme Gomes Verocai1- 1Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University College Station, College Station, United States
- 2Institut de Recherche en Élevage pour le Développement, Afrique One Aspire, N'Djamena, Chad, N'Djamena, Chad
- 3Programme National d'Éradication du Ver de Guinée – Tchad, Ministère de la Santé, N’Djamena, Chad, N’Djamena, Chad
- 4The Carter Center, National Guinea Worm Eradication Program – Chad, N'Djamena, Chad, N'Djamena, Chad
- 5Guinea Worm Eradication Program, The Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, Atlanta, United States
- 6Institute of Parasitology, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Canada
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Guinea worm (GW) is a nematode that causes a neglected tropical disease that is targeted for eradication. GW emergence in animals, particularly dogs, has hampered eradication efforts. Currently, there is no method for diagnosing GW infection in animals during the prepatent period. Previous work has identified two immunoreactive antigens, TRXL-1 (TRX) and DUF148. This study developed and assessed the performance of an indirect ELISA using these antigens. Using serum samples from experimentally exposed dogs, TRX and DUF148 showed reactivity at 9-and 11-weeks post-exposure, respectively. These antigens were further assessed using sera of dogs from GW-endemic villages in Chad (n=47) and shelter dogs from the non-endemic United States (n=492). DUF148 showed better reactivity and sensitivity of 76.6.% in detecting GW infection in prepatent sera compared to TRX. However, DUF148 cross-reacted with a Brugia pahangi experimental infection serum sample and several shelter dog sera. To mitigate this cross-reaction, we produced 3 peptides that spanned different regions of DUF148. Peptide 3 from the C-terminal was more reactive with prepatent sera and had a sensitivity of 83%; however, the specificity was not superior to whole antigen. Our findings could facilitate the development of diagnostic methods for early detection of GW infection in dogs in endemic countries.
Keywords: Guinea worm, eradication, Dog infections, DUF148, Serology
Received: 04 Sep 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hakimi, Weerarathne, Saleh, Rech, Bongo Nare, Tchindebet, Metinou, van Loben Sels, Tritten and Gomes Verocai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hassan Hakimi, hhakimi@vet.k-state.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.