A Rapid and Specific Real-Time PCR Assay for the Detection of Clinically Relevant Mucorales Species

Overview

Journal Int J Mol Sci

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Chemistry
Molecular Biology

Date 2022 Dec 11

PMID 36499395

Authors

Massimiliano Bergallo

Vivian Tullio

Janira Roana

Valeria Allizond

Narcisa Mandras

Valentina Dapra

Maddalena Dini

Sara Comini

Lorenza Cavallo

Stefano Gambarino

Anna Maria Cuffini

Giuliana Banche

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Infections triggered by filamentous fungi placed in the order Mucorales, phylum Zygomycota, can cause serious harm to immunocompromised patients. Since there is lack of a standardized PCR (polymerase chain reaction) assay for early diagnosis of this fungal infection, this work was aimed to develop a new PCR assay able to detect the presence of Mucorales genera in clinical specimens. Here, we describe a novel diagnostic TaqMan MGB probe assay for precise and rapid detection of the most common clinical species of Mucorales. Zygomycete-specific oligonucleotides were designed to specifically amplify and bind highly conserved sequences of fungal 28S rRNA gene. Additionally, we succeeded in differentiating Mucorales species (i.e., , , , and ) in artificially infected serum samples, suggesting that the quantitative capability of this real-time PCR assay could potentially optimize the diagnosis of mucormycosis.

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