Assays for quantification of male and female gametocytes in human blood by qRT-PCR in the absence of pure sex-specific gametocyte standards

Table 4 Pfs25 (female gametocyte) qRT-PCR assay for assessing inter-assay variability between runs for 7 clinical study cohorts

Standard (gametocytes/mL)	n	Mean C_q (SD)	Range C_q	%CV C_q
5.71 × 10⁶	17	16.73 (0.27)	15.66–17.43	1.6
5.71 × 10⁵	17	19.93 (0.36)	18.71–20.82	1.8
5.71 × 10⁴	17	23.32 (0.31)	22.47–24.63	1.3
5.71 × 10³	17	26.60 (0.45)	25.12–27.87	1.7
5.71 × 10²	24	30.04 (0.45)	29.07–31.21	1.5
5.71 × 10¹	11	34.02 (0.38)	32.94–34.97	1.1
5.71 × 10⁰	13^a	37.14 (0.87)	35.79–38.42	2.3
Total	116	26.29 (0.50^b)	15.66–38.42

C_q: quantification cycle, SD: standard deviation, %CV: percent coefficient of variation
^aOverall SD
^bOut of 16 runs

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