Efficacy of LAMP assay for Mycobacterial spp. detection to prevent treatment delays and onset of drug resistance: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a deadly disease affecting one-third population globally. Long turnaround time and poor sensitivity of the conventional diagnostics are the major impediments for faster diagnosis of Myco-bacterial spp to prevent drug resistance. To overcome these issues, molecular diagnostics have been developed. They offer enhanced sensitivity but require sophisticated infrastructure, skilled manpower and remain expensive. Methods: In that context, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay, recommended by the WHO in 2016 for TB diagnosis, sounds as a promising alternative that facilitates visual read outs. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic efficiency of LAMP for the detection of a panel of Mycobacterium spp. following PRISMA guidelines using scientific databases. From 1600 studies reported on the diagnosis of Mycobacterium spp., a selection of 30 articles were identified as eligible to meet the criteria of LAMP based diagnosis. Results: It was found that most of the studies were conducted in high disease burden nations such as India, Thai-land, and Japan with sputum as the most common specimen to be used for LAMP assay. Furthermore, IS6110 gene and fluorescence-based detections ranked as the most used target and method respectively. The accuracy and precision rates mostly varied between 79.2% to 99.3% and 73.9% to 100%, respectively. Lastly, a quality assessment based on QUADAS-2 of bias and applicability was conducted. Conclusion: LAMP technology could be considered as a feasible alternative to current diagnostics considering high burden for rapid testing in low resource regions.