Real-Time PCR Duplex Assay forRickettsia prowazekiiandBorrelia recurrentis
- 1 June 2003
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 990 (1) , 302-310
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2003.tb07380.x
Abstract
Rickettsia prowazekii, the etiologic agent for epidemic typhus, and Borrelia recurrentis, the etiologic agent of relapsing fever, both utilize the same vector, the human body louse (Pediculus humanus), to transmit human disease. We have developed an assay to detect both bacterial pathogens in a single tube utilizing real-time PCR. Assays for both agents are specific. The R. prowazekii and B. recurrentis assays do not detect nucleic acid from R. typhi, R. canada, or any of eight spotted fever rickettsiae. In addition they did not react with Neorickettsia risticii, N. sennetsu, Franciscella persica, Bartonella quintana, Legionella pneumophila, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, the B. recurrentis assay did not detect B. duttonii, B. coriaceae, B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. hermsii, or B. burgdorferi nucleic acid. Both assays detected repeatedly only R. prowazekii or B. recurrentis either when tested alone or together in one test tube.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- Profound Bias in Interferon‐γ and Interleukin‐6 Allele Frequencies in Western Kenya, Where Severe Malarial Anemia Is Common in ChildrenThe Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2002
- Survey of Three Bacterial Louse‐Associated Diseases Among Rural Andean Communities in Peru: Prevalence of Epidemic Typhus, Trench Fever, and Relapsing FeverClinical Infectious Diseases, 1999
- Multicolor molecular beacons for allele discriminationNature Biotechnology, 1998
- Borrelia recurrentis Characterization and Comparison with Relapsing-Fever, Lyme-Associated, and Other Borrelia spp.International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 1997
- Phylogenesis of Relapsing Fever Borrelia spp.International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 1996
- Genotypic Identification of Murine Typhus Rickettsia in Rats and their Fleas in an Endemic Area of Greece by the Polymerase Chain Reaction and Restriction Fragment Length PolymorphismThe American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1996
- Molecular Beacons: Probes that Fluoresce upon HybridizationNature Biotechnology, 1996
- Genotypic identification of rickettsiae and estimation of intraspecies sequence divergence for portions of two rickettsial genesJournal of Bacteriology, 1991
- Characterization of the gene encoding the protective paracrystalline-surface-layer protein of Rickettsia prowazekii: presence of a truncated identical homolog in Rickettsia typhi.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1990
- Diagnosis of Acute Typhus Infection Using the Polymerase Chain ReactionAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1990