Nucleic acid degradation after long-term dried blood spot storage

The TaqPath kit performed well for HIV drug resistance testing from dried blood spots in samples with high viral loads, meeting WHO criteria for sensitivity and mutation detection, but showed reduced sensitivity at lower viral loads below 5000 copies/mL. This supports the use of DBS for decentralised HIV monitoring in resource-limited settings, though caution is needed when viral load is low.

Evaluation of the Applied Biosystems™ TaqPath™ Seq HIV-1 Genotyping Kit for HIV-1 drug resistance testing from dried blood spot specimens — Okafor et al., Journal of virological methods (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• dbs
• dried
• serology
• validation
• genotyping

During urban reactive case detection for malaria in Lusaka, dried blood spot sampling was deployed for parasite genetic analysis alongside rapid diagnostic tests. However, high infection complexity and small sample numbers constrained the ability to discern transmission pathways from the genetic data.

The use of spatial and genetic tools to assess Plasmodium falciparum transmission in Lusaka, Zambia between 2011 and 2015 — Bridges et al., Malaria journal · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• serology
• genotyping

Molecular analysis of dried blood spots from patients across Myanmar shows that a third of Plasmodium falciparum isolates carry kelch13 propeller mutations associated with artemisinin resistance, while multiple pfmdr1 copies are uncommon, indicating that artemisinin based combination therapy should remain effective but requires ongoing efficacy monitoring.

K13 mutations and pfmdr1 copy number variation in Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Myanmar — Win et al., Malaria journal · source ↗

• blood
• dbs
• dried
• serology
• genotyping

The study found that self-collection of dried blood spots and other samples using at-home kits was a useful and cost-effective method for screening a large cohort for sexually transmitted infections outside a clinic. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised, patient-centric sampling for population-level infectious disease surveillance.

Prevalence of chlamydial, gonococcal and syphilis positivity by anatomical site and sex via self-collected biospecimens using at-home testing kits among a large and diverse cohort of men and women enrolled in the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) in the USA — Mimiaga et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• sti
• dbs
• self-collection
• dried
• serology
• bd-microtainer
• urine

The study validated a semi-quantitative protocol for Epstein-Barr virus serology using dried blood spots, demonstrating 98.8% sensitivity and 96.5% specificity compared to paired venous serum samples. The successful validation in a self-sampling cohort confirms the suitability of this patient-centric microsampling approach for large-scale seroprevalence studies and decentralised trials.

A dried blood spot protocol for high-throughput semi-quantitative analysis of Epstein-Barr Virus VCA IgG and EBNA IgG serologies based on the Roche Elecsys system — Rubio-Acero et al., Virology journal · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• capillary
• dbs
• self-collection
• validation
• venous-agreement
• serology