Raman spectral analysis for rapid screening of dengue infection

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Diagnostics
• Spectroscopy
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Current dengue virus detection relies on biomarkers like non-structural proteins (Ns1), immunoglobulin M (IgM), and immunoglobulin G (IgG).
• Existing biomarkers often lack mutual correlation, complicating accurate clinical diagnosis.
• Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are commonly used but face limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore Raman spectroscopy as a label-free, rapid screening technique for dengue virus diagnosis.
• To investigate spectral changes in blood plasma associated with dengue infection.
• To evaluate the diagnostic performance of Raman spectroscopy combined with Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Factorial Discriminant Analysis (FDA).

Main Methods:

• Collected blood plasma samples from dengue-infected patients and healthy individuals.
• Utilized Raman spectroscopy to analyze spectral properties of the samples.
• Applied Principal Components Analysis coupled with Factorial Discriminant Analysis (PCA-FDA) for data analysis and classification.

Main Results:

• Observed distinct changes in Raman spectral bands related to lipidic and amino acid/protein content in dengue-positive samples.
• Achieved 97.95% sensitivity and 95.40% specificity in identifying dengue infection in the primary analysis.
• Demonstrated 97.38% sensitivity and 86.18% specificity when analyzing samples with ambiguous biomarker results.

Conclusions:

• Raman spectroscopy is a promising, unambiguous screening technology for dengue virus detection.
• The observed spectral changes serve as potential markers for dengue development.
• PCA-FDA analysis of Raman spectra provides high diagnostic accuracy, potentially overcoming limitations of current biomarker assays.