A pooled analysis of the LAMP assay for the detection of Neisseria meningitidis

Abstract

Background Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis, and these infections are associated with a high mortality rate. Rapid and reliable diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is critical in clinical practice. However, this disease often occurs in economically depressed areas, so an inexpensive, easy to use, and accurate technology is needed. We performed a pooled-analysis to assess the potential of the recently developed loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detection of meningococcus. Methods Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched to identify original studies that used the LAMP assay to detect meningococcus. After pooling of data, the sensitivity and specificity were calculated, a summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was determined, and the area under the SROC curve was computed to determine diagnostic accuracy. Publication bias was assessed using Deek’s funnel plot. Results We examined 14 studies within 6 publications. The LAMP assay had high sensitivity (94%) and specificity (100%) in the detection of meningococcus in all studies. The area under the SROC curve (0.980) indicated high overall accuracy of the LAMP assay. There was no evidence of publication bias. Discussion The LAMP assay has accuracy comparable to bacterial culture and PCR for detection of meningococcus, but is less expensive and easier to use. We suggest the adoption of the LAMP assay to detect meningococcus, especially in economically depressed areas.

Molecular diagnostic assays for the detection of common bacterial meningitis pathogens: A narrative review

“…Improvements in LAMP methodologies that could allow for real-time monitoring system without post-amplification manipulations make these assays potential candidates for the molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases such as meningitis. The pooled high sensitivity and specificity values determined from a review of LAMP assays detecting the meningococcus are encouraging [73] and the design of a multiplex LAMP assay including all four pathogens included in this review is now a possibility. Such an assay would be invaluable for use in hospital settings and the lack of requirements for expensive equipment makes it an appealing approach for laboratories with limited resources.…”

Pooled analysis of LAMP assay for the diagnosis of norovirus infection

“…The most significant one is its rapidity; LAMP allows immediate diagnosis in just 30–50 min 36 . Recently, LAMP has been utilized for the rapid detection of some pathogens, and their results showed high accuracy and availability in the diagnosis of the corresponding pathogens 37‐39 . In the detection of norovirus, LAMP with hydroxynaphthol blue dye could be observed visually through the change of color; therefore, the instrument of molecular electrophoresis is not required 27,28,31 …”

Fluorescent and colorimetric RT-LAMP as a rapid and specific qualitative method for chronic myeloid leukemia diagnosis

“…Recently, the Loop-Mediated Isothermal Ampli cation (LAMP) methodology has been studied and applied for several molecular biology diagnosis, demonstrating high sensitivity and speci city aspects [12][13][14][15][16] . This method is based on the use of the strand-displacement Bst polymerase, combined with sets of 4 to 6 primers in an isothermal procedure, usually between 60-65 o C for 30-60 minutes 17,18 .…”