Direct detection and identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in smear-positive sputum samples by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes.

  • 1 September 1999
    • journal article
    • Vol. 3  (9) , 830-7
Abstract
Peptidenucleic acid (PNA) probesdesigned for specific detection of mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) and other non-tuberculous mycobacterium species (NTM) are shown to be able to penetrate the mycobacterial cell wall and subsequently hybridize in situ to complementary rRNA. To demonstrate the use of fluorescein-labelled PNA probes for detection and identification of M. tuberculosis in smear-positive sputum samples. The sensitivity and specificity of the PNA probes were investigated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using cultures of mycobacterium strains representing species of the MTC and NTM, respectively. M. tuberculosis strains were detected by FISH using specific fluorescein-labelled PNA probes directly in smear-positive sputum samples without changing the morphology of the cells. PNA probes allow for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis in smear-positive cases.

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