An easy operating pathogen microarray (EOPM) platform for rapid screening of vertebrate pathogens.
BACKGROUND
Infectious diseases emerge frequently in China, partly because of its large and highly mobile population. Therefore, a rapid and cost-effective pathogen screening method with broad coverage is required for prevention and control of infectious diseases. The availability of a large number of microbial genome sequences generated by conventional Sanger sequencing and next generation sequencing has enabled the development of a high-throughput high-density microarray platform for rapid large-scale screening of vertebrate pathogens.


METHODS
An easy operating pathogen microarray (EOPM) was designed to detect almost all known pathogens and related species based on their genomic sequences. For effective identification of pathogens from EOPM data, a statistical enrichment algorithm has been proposed, and further implemented in a user-friendly web-based interface.


RESULTS
Using multiple probes designed to specifically detect a microbial genus or species, EOPM can correctly identify known pathogens at the species or genus level in blinded testing. Despite a lower sensitivity than PCR, EOPM is sufficiently sensitive to detect the predominant pathogens causing clinical symptoms. During application in two recent clinical infectious disease outbreaks in China, EOPM successfully identified the responsible pathogens.


CONCLUSIONS
EOPM is an effective surveillance platform for infectious diseases, and can play an important role in infectious disease control.
BioChain (Beijing) Science & Technology Inc,, No,7A, Yongchang North Rd, Business Development Area, Beijing 100176, China. jiangyq710327@sina.com.
Weiwei
W
Huang
Yinhui
Y
Yang
Xinlei
X
Zhang
Changan
C
Zhao
Aihua
A
Yin
Xiaozhuang
X
Zhang
Zhengxin
Z
He
Yongqiang
Y
Jiang
Liang
L
Zhang
D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002681:China; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000821:virology; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010271:Parasites / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014714:Vertebrates; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*