INTRODUCTION Acute bacterial meningitis is one of the most severe infectious diseases. Rapid, accurate, and inexpensive diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is crucial for patient management. This study describes a duplex real-time (RT) PCR assay for detection of Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for meningitis diagnosis using SYBR Green-based RT-...

Macrolide treatment failure in syphilis patients is associated with a single point mutation (either A2058G or A2059G) in both copies of the 23S rRNA gene in Treponema pallidum strains. The conventional method for the detection of both point mutations uses nested PCR combined with restriction enzyme digestions, which is laborious and time-consuming. We initially developed a TaqMan-based real-tim...

The performance of a new commercially available duplex PCR, which combines pan-dermatophyte PCR with a Trichophyton rubrum-specific PCR, was evaluated. This Dermatophyte PCR kit, which requires one day for laboratory diagnosis, was compared with the conventional methods of microscopy and culture that necessitate up to 4 weeks for final diagnosis of dermatophytosis. We studied 177 nail samples f...

A real-time PCR was designed for detection of Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae such that each pathogen could be detected in a single tube and differentiated using molecular beacons marked with different fluorochromes. This duplex PCR, targeting the P1 adhesion gene for M. pneumoniae and the ompA gene for C. pneumoniae, was compared with two conventional PCR assays targeting th...

Many allergens, such as hazelnut, peanut, charlock, celery, sesame, lupine, walnut, almond, macadamia nut, hickory, pistachio, wheat gliadins, may be present in food products, however, undeclared or as unintentional additives. Due to the growing number of allergic reactions, it is crucial to have fast, reliable methods of allergen detection in processed food products. This review summarizes the...

The detection of phytoplasmas in fruit trees and other important crops is demanded from nurseries and certification agencies. We have therefore developed an efficient assay for general detection of phytoplasmas. This duplex assay combines the phytoplasma detection with an internal control, detecting host gene 18S rRNA in the same reaction. The internal control enables the confirmation of an eff...

BACKGROUND Genetic polymorphisms in the human MDM2 gene are suggested to be a tumor susceptibility marker and a prognostic factor for cancer. It has been reported that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) c.309T>G in the MDM2 gene attenuates the tumor suppressor activity of p53 and accelerates tumor formation in humans. METHODOLOGY In this study, to detect the SNP c.309T>G in the MDM2 gene,...

in this paper using strongly duplexes we introduce a new class of (semi)hypergroups. the associated (semi)hypergroup from a strongly duplex is called duplex (semi)hypergroup. two computer programs written in matlab show that the two groups $z_{2n}$ and $z_{n}times z_{2}$ produce a strongly duplex and its associated hypergroup is a complementary feasible hypergroup.

Despite wide application to beach water monitoring and microbial source identification, results produced by quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods are subject to bias introduced by reliance on quantitative standards. Digital PCR technology provides direct, standards-free quantification and may potentially alleviate or greatly reduce other qPCR limitations such as difficulty in multiplexing and suscept...