Rapid homogeneous PCR assay for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in urine samples

: Lehmusvuori A, Juntunen E, Tapio AH, Rantakokko-Jalava K, Soukka T, Lövgren T

Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

: 2010

: Journal of Microbiological Methods

: JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGICAL METHODS

: J MICROBIOL METH

: 3

: 83

: 3

: 302

: 306

: 5

: 0167-7012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mimet.2010.09.018

Chlamydia trachomatis infection is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease and a major public health problem worldwide. Fast and sensitive point-of-care diagnostics including non-invasive sample collection would be of value for the prevention of C trachomatis transmission. The aim of this study was to develop a fast, reliable, non-invasive and easy-to-use homogenous PCR assay for the detection of C. trachomatis. Bacteria were concentrated from urine by a simple and fast centrifugation-based urine pretreatment method. Novel automated GenomEra technology was utilized for the rapid closed-tube PCR including time-resolved fluorometric detection of the target using lanthanide chelate labeled probes. We have developed a rapid C trachomatis assay which provides qualitative results in 1 h with diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 98.7% and 97.3%, respectively. The novel assay can be performed with minimal laboratory expertise and without sophisticated DNA-extraction devices and has performance comparable to current gold standard assays. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.