Diagnosis of mucormycosis using an intercalating dye-based quantitative PCR

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Diagnosis of mucormycosis using an intercalating dye-based quantitative PCR Via Laryngologie Med Mycol. 2022 Feb 21:myac015. doi: 10.1093/mmy/myac015. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT PCR-based methods applied to various body fluids emerged in recent years as a promising approach for the diagnosis of mucormycosis. In this study, we set up and assess the value of a qPCR to detect a wide variety of Mucorales species in a single tube. A pair of degenerated primers targeting the rDNA operon was used in a qPCR utilizing an intercalating fluorescent dye. Analytical assessment, using a wide variety of both Mucorales strains (8 genera, 11 species) and non-Mucorales strains (9 genera, 14 species), showed 100% sensitivity and specificity rates with a limit of detection at 3 rDNA copy/ qPCR reaction. Subsequently, 364 clinical specimens from 166 at-risk patients were prospectively tested with the assay. All the seven patients classified as proven/probable mucormycosis using the EORTC-MSG criteria had a positive qPCR as well as a patient with a p roven uncharacterized invasive mould infection. In addition, 3 out of 7 patients with possible mould invasive infections had at least one positive qPCR test. Sensitivity was calculated between 73.33% to 100% and specificity between 98.10% to 100%. The qPCR method proposed showed excellent performances and would be an important adjunctive tool for the difficult diagnosis of mucormycosis diagnosis. PMID:35188208 | DOI:10.1093/mmy/myac015 View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.