Can anyone explain what this research article is about?

Question

Hi, I am struggling to understand what they did in this research article. Can anyone, in simple terms, summarise what they are doing? Thank you

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238840

Answer 1

Hey Vivien,

Great question! Quickly, my approach to reading research articles often begins by reading the abstract to get a brief idea of the publication. If I need a little more perspective, I read through the introduction and will jump straight to the discussion if a need a better explanation of what the authors found.

In brief, this paper you mentioned primarily looks at protein antigens of Leishmania donovani, a protozoa often transmitted by sandflies. The authors aim to investigate if urine protein antigens from the protozoa can accurately be identified and characterized to perhaps one day less invasively diagnose patients and subsequently confirm that treatment (often times with amphotericin B) has been successful.

Hope it helps!

Cheers