title: Specific amplification of Rickettsia tsutsugamushi DNA from clinical specimens by polymerase chain reaction.
abstract: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect Rickettsia tsutsugamushi-specific DNA in clinical specimens. The primer pair used for PCR was designed from the nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding the 56-kDa antigen of the Gilliam strain. Theses primers led to a 78-bp fragment by amplifying the genomic DNAs from five serovariants, i.e., the Gilliam, Karp, Kato, Kawasaki, and Kuroki strains of R. tsutsugamushi, and also the DNA from blood clots of patients with scrub typhus, even at the early stage of onset of the disease. This indicates that this method is suitable for the diagnosis of scrub typhus.
authors.affiliation: Division of Virology, Kanagawa Prefectural Public Health Laboratory, Yokohama, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Furuya
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kawamori
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohashi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kawamura
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012285:Orientia tsutsugamushi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012612:Scrub Typhus / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes