COMPARISON OF METHODS TO IDENTIFY Neisseria meningitidis IN ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS

Neisseria meningitidis is a cause of several life-threatening diseases and can be a normal commensal in the upper respiratory tract of healthy carriers. The carrier rate is not well established especially because there is no standard method for the isolation of N. meningitidis. Therefore, the aim of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo Vol. 58; pp. 60 - 5
Main Authors:	Rizek, Camila F, Luiz, André Machado, Assis, Gracilene Ramos de, Costa, Silvia Figueiredo, Levin, Anna Sara, Lopes, Marta Heloisa
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Brazil Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo 01-01-2016 Instituto de Medicina Tropical Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Subjects:	Asymptomatic carriage Carrier state Neisseria meningitidis Original PCR TROPICAL MEDICINE Neisseria meningitidis Carrier state PCR Asymptomatic carriage
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Summary:	Neisseria meningitidis is a cause of several life-threatening diseases and can be a normal commensal in the upper respiratory tract of healthy carriers. The carrier rate is not well established especially because there is no standard method for the isolation of N. meningitidis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare identification methods for the carrier state. Two swabs were collected from 190 volunteers: one was cultured and the other had DNA extracted directly from the sample. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was performed to determine species and serogroups and compared the results between the methods. PCR for species determination used two pairs of primers and when there was only one amplicon, it was sequenced. The culture technique was positive in 23 (12.1%) subjects while the direct extraction method was positive in 132 (69.5%), p < 0.001. Among the 135 subjects with positive N. meningitides tests, 88 (65.2%) were serogroup C; 3 (2.2%) serogroup B; 5 (3.7%) were positive for both serogroup B and C, and 39 (28.9%) did not belong to any of the tested serogroups. In this study, PCR from DNA extracted directly from swabs identified more N. meningitidis asymptomatic carriers than the culture technique.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0036-4665 1678-9946 1678-9946 0036-4665
DOI:	10.1590/S1678-9946201658060