A novel method for the purification of DNA by capturing nucleic acid and magnesium complexes on non-woven fabric filters under alkaline conditions for the gene diagnosis of tuberculosis by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP).

A novel method for purifying DNA from clinical samples based on the complex formation of DNA and magnesium ion (Mg(2+)) was developed for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The formation of a DNA-Mg(2+) complex under alkaline conditions was observed by analyzing electrophoretic mobility reduction of DNA on agarose gel. The DNA-Mg(2+) complex increases the efficacy of DNA recovery from the sample solution on polyethylene terephthalate non-woven fabric (PNWF) filters. Among the various divalent metal cations, only Mg(2+) was associated with this effect. The applicability of DNA recovered on the PNWF filter was examined for the gene amplification method; loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). DNA on the PNWF filter could be used for the amplification of specific DNA fragments without elution from the filter. Using this method, DNA was directly purified from M. tuberculosis spiked sputum and examined by LAMP assay, showing a high sensitivity in comparison to the commercially available DNA extraction kit. These results indicated that the method developed in this study is useful for rapid gene diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Development of an in-house loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and evaluation in sputum samples of Nepalese patients.

A number of nucleic acid amplification assays (NAAs) have been employed to detect tubercle bacilli in clinical specimens for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. Among these, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is an NAA possessing superior isothermal reaction characteristics. In the present study, a set of six specific primers targeting the Mycobacterium tuberculosis 16S rRNA gene with high sensitivity was selected and a LAMP system (MTB-LAMP) was developed. Using this system, a total of 200 sputum samples from Nepalese patients were investigated. The sensitivity of MTB-LAMP in culture-positive samples was 100 % (96/96), and the specificity in culture-negative samples was 94.2 % (98/104, 95 % confidence interval 90.5-97.9 %). The positive and negative predictive values of MTB-LAMP were 94.1 and 100 %, respectively. These results indicate that this MTB-LAMP method may prove to be a powerful tool for the early diagnosis of TB.