Assessment of efficacy of palm polymerase chain reaction with microscopy, rapid diagnostic test and conventional polymerase chain reaction for diagnosis of malaria

Handheld Ultra-Fast Duplex Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays and Lateral Flow Detection and Identification of Leishmania Parasites for Cutaneous Leishmaniases Diagnosis

Early and accurate detection of infectious diseases is a key step for surveillance, epidemiology and control, notably timely disease diagnosis, patient management and follow-up. In this study, we aimed to develop handheld ultra-fast duplex PCR assays coupled to amplicon detection by lateral flow (LF) immunoassay to deliver a rapid and simple molecular diagnostic test for concomitant detection and identification of the main Leishmania parasites encountered in Tunisia. We selected two DNA targets to amplify L. major/L. tropica and L. infantum/L. tropica groups of species DNAs, respectively. We optimized the experimental conditions of a duplex ultra-fast PCR. The amplification is performed using a portable Palm convection PCR machine within 18 min, and the products are detected using an LF cassette within 10 min. The test allows the identification of the infecting species according to the position and number of test lines revealed. Tested on a selection of DNAs of representative Leishmania strains of the three studied species (N = 37), the ultra-fast duplex PCR-LF showed consistent, stable and reproducible results. The analytical limit of detection of the test was 0.4 pg for L. major, 4 pg for L. infantum and 40 pg for L. tropica.

Comprehensive Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes in Clinically Diagnosed Irreversible Pulpitis by Multiplatform Data Integration Using a Robust Rank Aggregation Approach

INTRODUCTION

Molecular diagnosis may overcome the limitations of clinical and histologic diagnosis in pulpitis, thereby benefiting many treatment techniques, such as vital pulp therapies. In this study, integrated microarray data on pulpitis were used to obtain a list of normalized differentially expressed (DE) genes for analyzing the molecular mechanisms underlying pulpitis and identifying potential diagnostic biomarkers.

METHODS

A systematic search of public microarray and sequencing databases was performed to obtain expression data of pulpitis. Robust rank aggregation (RRA) was used to obtain DE gene lists (RRA_DEmRNAs and RRA_DElncRNAs) between inflamed pulp and normal samples. DE genes were evaluated by functional enrichment analyses, correlation analyses for inflammation-related RRA_DEmRNAs, and protein-protein interaction and competing endogenous RNA network construction. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction validation was applied in snap-frozen pulp tissues.

RESULTS

Using the GSE77459 and GSE92681 data sets, 280 RRA_DEmRNAs and 90 RRA_DElncRNAs were identified. RRA_DEmRNAs were significantly enriched in inflammation-related biological processes and osteoclast differentiation and tumor necrosis factor, chemokine, and B-cell receptor signaling pathways. The molecular complex detection and cytoHubba methods identified 2 clusters and 10 hub genes in the protein-protein interaction network. The competing endogenous RNA network was composed of 2 long noncoding RNAs (ADAMTS9-AS2 and LINC00290), 2 microRNAs (hsa-miR-30a-5p and hsa-miR-128-3p), and 3 messenger RNAs (ABCA1, FBLN5, and SOCS3). The expression between most top inflammation-related RRA_DEmRNAs in pulpitis showed positive correlations. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reacation validated the expression trends of selected genes, including ITGAX, TREM1, CD86, FCGR2A, ADAMTS9-AS2, LINC00290, hsa-miR-30a-5p, hsa-miR-128-3p, RASGRP3, IL3RA, CCDC178, CRISPLD1, LINC01857, AC007991.2, ARHGEF26-AS1, and AL021408.1.

CONCLUSIONS

The identified biomarkers provide insight into the pathology and may aid in the molecular diagnosis of pulpitis.