Human Brain Damage Detection using PorA Marker

Abstract

Human brain damage (meningitis) caused by Neisseria meningitidis is generally diagnosed from patient cerebrospinal fluid through microscopy, immunological assays, biochemical methods, PCR, microarray or biosensors. All these methods are expensive, time consuming or non-confirmatory. A quick PCR based method was developed for detection of human brain damage using specific primers based amplification of PorA gene partial sequence (211bp). The PorA gene amplicon can be used as a marker for detection of about 2mg of genomic DNA (9.36x10 4 colony forming unit) of N. meningitidis in 80 min. This is the least time reported so far for confirmation of the disease. The cross reactivity of the marker was checked with other possible organisms present in cerebrospinal fluid. A comparative study of the available methods with the PorA as marker was done using 30 meningitis suspected patient samples.