Development and evaluation of a rapid nucleic acid amplification method to detect influenza A and B viruses in human respiratory specimens

Isothermal nucleic acid amplification methods can potentially shorten the amount of time required to diagnose influenza. We developed and evaluated a novel isothermal nucleic acid amplification method, RT-SIBA to rapidly detect and differentiate between influenza A and B viruses in a single reaction tube. The performance of the RT-SIBA Influenza assay was compared with two established RT-PCR methods. The sensitivities of the RT-SIBA, RealStar RT-PCR, and CDC RT-PCR assays for the detection of influenza A and B viruses in the clinical specimens were 98.8%, 100%, and 89.3%, respectively.

Source: Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease - April 18, 2018 Category: Microbiology Authors: Sonja Elf, Pauliina Auvinen, Lisa Jahn, Karoliina Liikonen, Solveig Sj öblom, Päivi Saavalainen, Minna Mäki, Kevin E. Eboigbodin Source Type: research