LAMP-enabled diagnosis of Kaposi's sarcoma for sub-Saharan Africa

• Published in: Science advances 2023-01, Vol.9 (2), p.eadc8913
• Main Authors: McCloskey, Duncan, Semeere, Aggrey, Ayanga, Racheal, Laker-Oketta, Miriam, Lukande, Robert, Semakadde, Matthew, Kanyesigye, Micheal, Wenger, Megan, LeBoit, Philip, McCalmont, Timothy, Maurer, Toby, Gardner, Andrea, Boza, Juan, Cesarman, Ethel, Martin, Jeffrey, Erickson, David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedicine and Life Sciences; Cancer; Health and Medicine; SciAdv r-articles
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adc8913

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is an endothelial cancer caused by the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and is one of the most common cancers in sub-Saharan Africa. In limited-resource settings, traditional pathology infrastructure is often insufficient for timely diagnosis, leading to frequent diagnoses at advanced-stage disease where survival is poor. In this study, we investigate molecular diagnosis of KS performed in a point-of-care device to circumvent the limited infrastructure for traditional diagnosis. Using 506 mucocutaneous biopsies collected from patients at three HIV clinics in Uganda, we achieved 97% sensitivity, 92% specificity, and 96% accuracy compared to gold standard U.S.-based pathology. The results presented in this manuscript show that LAMP-based quantification of KSHV DNA extracted from KS-suspected biopsies has the potential to serve as a successful diagnostic for the disease and that diagnosis may be accurately achieved using a point-of-care device, reducing the barriers to obtaining KS diagnosis while increasing diagnostic accuracy.