Abstract
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biology technique used to multiply certain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fragments. It is a common and indispensable technique that has been applied in many areas, especially in clinical laboratories. The third generation of polymerase chain reaction, droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR), is a biotechnological refinement of conventional polymerase chain reaction methods that can be used to directly quantify and clonally amplify DNA. Droplet digital polymerase chain reaction is now widely used in low-abundance nucleic acid detection and is useful in diagnosis of infectious diseases. Here, we summarized the potential advantages of droplet digital polymerase chain reaction in clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases, including viral diseases, bacterial diseases and parasite infections, concluded that ddPCR provides a more sensitive, accurate, and reproducible detection of low-abundance pathogens and may be a better choice than quantitative polymerase chain reaction for clinical applications in the future.
Highlights
The infectious diseases are the illness caused by the infection of certain pathogens [1]
We summarized the potential advantages of droplet digital polymerase chain reaction in clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases, including viral diseases, bacterial diseases and parasite infections, concluded that ddPCR provides a more sensitive, accurate, and reproducible detection of low-abundance pathogens and may be a better choice than quantitative polymerase chain reaction for clinical applications in the future
Due to pathogens of latency infection, like Ebola virus, malaria, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis, their concentrations in plasma are sometimes too low to be determined by traditional methods like ELISA or blood smear
Summary
Application of droplet digital PCR to detect the pathogens of infectious diseases Haiyi Li1,2,*, Ruolan Bai1,*, Zhenyu Zhao, Lvyan Tao, Mingbiao Ma1, Zhenhua Ji1, Miaomiao Jian, Zhe Ding, Xiting Dai, Fukai Bao and Aihua Liu. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biology technique used to multiply certain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fragments. It is a common and indispensable technique that has been applied in many areas, especially in clinical laboratories. Droplet digital polymerase chain reaction is widely used in low-abundance nucleic acid detection and is useful in diagnosis of infectious diseases. We summarized the potential advantages of droplet digital polymerase chain reaction in clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases, including viral diseases, bacterial diseases and parasite infections, concluded that ddPCR provides a more sensitive, accurate, and reproducible detection of low-abundance pathogens and may be a better choice than quantitative polymerase chain reaction for clinical applications in the future. Accepted Manuscript Online: 19 October 2018 Version of Record published: 16 November 2018
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