Korean Lepr Bull.  2005 Jun;38(1):25-34.

Rapid detection of Mycobacterium leprae for the diagnosis of leprosy: comparison between loop-mediated isothermal amplification and PCR.

• Kim JP
• Ko YH

Abstract

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is a novel nucleic acid amplification method that amplifies DNA with high specificity, efficiency, and speed under isothermal conditions. To evaluate the usefulness of LAMP for diagnosing leprosy, we compared the results of LAMP method and PCR, using samples that were previously tested by PCR. We used the species-specific primers designed by targeting the 18KDa antigenic protein gene for the LAMP and PCR, for detection of Mycobacterium leprae directly from biopsy samples of patients. Doing LAMP and PCR, when the results of PCR ware regarded as standard, we observed the results of LAMP were equal to those of PCR. So we are thought the LAMP method is rapid, taking only 1 h, compared with about 4 h for PCR. In addition, it is performed under isothermal conditions and no special apparatus is needed, which makes it more economical and practical than PCR. Although further improvement is necessary for the wide spread use, the LAMP method might be applicable to diagnosis of leprosy.

Keyword

LAMP; Mycobacterium leprae; leprosy; diagnosis

MeSH Terms

Biopsy
Diagnosis*
DNA
Humans
Leprosy*
Mycobacterium leprae*
Mycobacterium*
Polymerase Chain Reaction*
Sensitivity and Specificity
DNA