title: Non-culture diagnosis and serogroup determination of meningococcal B and C infection by a sialyltransferase (siaD) PCR ELISA.
abstract: Rapid, non-culture, serogroup determination of meningococcal infection is important in contact management where vaccination may be possible. The impending availability of polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines for serogroup C disease requires maximal case ascertainment, with serogroup determination, at a time when the number of culture confirmed meningococcal infections is decreasing. A polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR), based on a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in the meningococcal serogroup B and C sialytransferase (siaD) gene, was developed to combine the non-culture diagnosis of meningococcal infection from CSF, whole blood and serum with serogroup (B and C) identification. The PCR assay was adapted to an ELISA format incorporating hybridization with serogroup-specific B and C oligonucleotide probes. Specificity for CSFs was 100% and sensitivities were respectively 81, 63 and 30% for CSFs, whole blood and sera. The serogroup-specific PCR ELISA is a significant addition to currently available tests for non-culture diagnosis of meningococcal infection and outbreak investigation.
authors.affiliation: Manchester Public Health Laboratory, Withington Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Borrow
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Claus
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guiver
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Smart
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Kaczmarski
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frosch
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Fox
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012703:Serotyping / Q000379:methods; D012799:Sialyltransferases / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012799:Sialyltransferases