Nucleic acid degradation after long-term dried blood spot storage
Li et al.
The finding, in our words
Dried blood spots stored at ambient temperature for up to 15 years retained sufficient DNA quantity and integrity for some genomic applications, but were of limited use for viral pathogen research, especially RNA viruses. This suggests DBS can support decentralised genomics but may not be reliable for RNA virus diagnostics without additional stabilisation.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
Okafor et al., Journal of virological methods (paywalled) · source ↗
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.
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.
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.
Mimiaga et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗
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.