Rapid screening for Chlamydia trachomatis infection by detecting α-mannosidase activity in urogenital tract specimens.
BACKGROUND
Chlamydia trachomatis may cause multiple different urogenital tract disorders, but current non-culture assays for rapid screening of C. trachomatis typically use immunochromatography-based methods. We established another new rapid non-culture method for detection of C. trachomatis based on the measurement of α-mannosidase enzymatic activity in urogenital tract specimens.


METHODS
To evaluate the performance of this method, α-mannosidase activities of C. trachomatis serotype D strain 、 and 29 standard strains related to clinical urogenital pathogens were investigated. Furthermore, 553 urogenital tract specimens were used for clinical assays via cell culture method and ligase chain reaction method (LCR), adopting an expanded gold standard.


RESULTS
Only C. trachomatis was positive for α-mannosidase activity among different types of microbes tested in the research. When prostate fluid specimens, which have some interfering activity, were excluded, the sensitivity and specificity of the enzymatic method were 91.8% (78/85) and 98.3% (409/416), respectively. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
These results showed that α-mannosidase activity could be utilised as a screening marker of C. trachomatis infection.
Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Basic Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China.
Ze-yu
ZY
Wang
Guang-yu
GY
Fu
Shan-mei
SM
Wang
Dong-chun
DC
Qin
Zhong-quan
ZQ
Wang
Jing
J
Cui
D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014566:Urogenital System / Q000382:microbiology*; D043323:alpha-Mannosidase / Q000378:metabolism*
D043323:alpha-Mannosidase