Normally, dengue test results are available a few days after exposure, leading to delay in medical intervention. Now, a low cost, real-time dengue fever detection kit, developed by Dr Navin Khanna, Group Leader, Molecular Medicine Division, Recombinant Gene Products Laboratory, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, is poised to change the face of dengue fever detection in the country. This feat has fetched Dr Khanna the 7th Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award. Speaking to Shashwat Gupta Ray, he speaks more about the 'Dengue Day 1 test' kit.
You are being feted for developing affordable 'Dengue Day 1 test' kit. How does it feel? What does it mean for you?
I feel delighted and thankful to the selection committee, which has honoured this indigenous success story.
Please elaborate more on the breakthrough. What is this breakthrough about? What are the key elements of this test kit?
This rapid test can help in early detection of dengue fever. Since dengue fever is caused by DENV 1,2,3 and 4, this test can detect infection by any of these 4 viruses. This can differentiate between primary and secondary dengue virus infection, which is vital for clinical management of dengue patients. Second infections of dengue virus could become serious.
How is this kit developed by your lab different from the ones being used today to detect dengue? How cheap is the test in comparison to the cost of tests being done now?
This test kit is now a market leader and is the most inexpensive test kit, with very high performance.
What prompted you to develop this kit? What were the challenges and how did you manage to overcome them?
India has the highest dengue disease burden, and according to WHO, dengue is the fastest spreading mosquito-borne disease, with 400 million global cases in more than 100 countries. The challenge was to provide an affordable and high performing test kit, appropriate for use in resource poor settings. This kit can also detect the presence of dengue infected mosquitoes.
One major challenge was access to well characterised dengue infected human sera samples, to test the design of diagnostic intermediates for this test and its final performance evaluation. We had a lot of help from colleagues at Sri Lanka, who shared their expertise with ICGEB.
Have you transferred the technology to any pharma/diagnostic tool development company?
This 'know-how' has been successfully transferred to J Mitra and Co, which has a WHO certified production facility for making these test kits in India.
There's a big challenge in detecting febrile diseases as they have similar symptoms but there is a difference in the gravity of the toll it takes. How will this kit help in timely detection and differentiation of each of these diseases, especially in case of vector-borne diseases?
Dengue and chikungunya viral fevers are spread by the same mosquito, and co-infection cases have also been reported. We do need a differential diagnosis of these fevers. I am glad that there is a reliable way to test dengue virus infection, but tests for CHIKG antigen are not yet available. This research work is in progress and could take several years.
I have read that ICGEB's dengue saga began with a letter from former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who had sought to develop a low-cost dengue detection kit for soldiers. Is this incident the original trigger for the development of this kit? Could you please elaborate more on this?
Yes, the need for this test was felt by our former president, whose office had contacted Director of ICGEB and had also provided initial funding for this activity. I am certain that this test kit is of use to every dengue infected individual.
How severe is the problem of malaria and dengue in our armed forces and how will this kit help them? Have you provided your kit/technology to DRDO/Armed Forces Medical Services for use in the field?
Yes, this 'know-how' is available to them. I have no information on the severity of malaria and dengue disease burden in the armed forces.
Your lab is also developing dengue vaccine and apparently, testing on mice model has been done and is successful. Please share some results and what is the position of testing the same on human models?
A lot of research work is still required before human testing of our vaccine can be initiated.
How much time you think will it take to develop the vaccine?
It is too early to make any comment on this.
