Infection and Drug Resistance (Feb 2020)

Current and Future Perspectives on Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Technologies for Diagnosing Infections

  • Obande GA,
  • Banga Singh KK

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 455 – 483

Abstract

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Godwin Attah Obande,1,2 Kirnpal Kaur Banga Singh1 1Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia; 2Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Federal University Lafia, Lafia, Nasarawa State, NigeriaCorrespondence: Kirnpal Kaur Banga SinghDepartment of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, School of Medical Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, MalaysiaTel +60 97676257Fax +60 97676289Email [email protected]: Nucleic acid amplification technology (NAAT) has assumed a critical position in disease diagnosis in recent times and contributed significantly to healthcare. Application of these methods has resulted in a more sensitive, accurate and rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases than older traditional methods like culture-based identification. NAAT such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is widely applied but seldom available to resource-limited settings. Isothermal amplification (IA) methods provide a rapid, sensitive, specific, simpler and less expensive procedure for detecting nucleic acid from samples. However, not all of these IA techniques find regular applications in infectious diseases diagnosis. Disease diagnosis and treatment could be improved, and the rapidly increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance reduced, with improvement, adaptation, and application of isothermal amplification methods in clinical settings, especially in developing countries. This review centres on some isothermal techniques that have found documented applications in infectious diseases diagnosis, highlighting their principles, development, strengths, setbacks and imminent potentials for use at points of care.Keywords: amplification, diagnosis, disease, isothermal, polymerase chain reaction, resistance

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