Development of a novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the detection of Rickettsia spp.

Abstract

We developed a novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method to detect Rickettsia spp., including Rickettsia prowazekii and R. typhi. Species-specific LAMP primers were developed for orthologous genes conserved among Rickettsia spp. The selected modified primers could detect all the Rickettsia spp. tested. The LAMP method was successfully used to detect 100 DNA copies of Rickettsia spp. within approximately 60 min at 639C. Therefore, this method may be an excellent tool for the early diagnosis of rickettsiosis in a laboratory or in the field.