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A Review of the Molecular Detection of Tuberculosis Through Colorimetric Analysis of Au-Nanoprobes Combined with Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification

In developing countries, one of the deadliest infections afflicting adult humans is tuberculosis (TB). The disease is currently responsible for over two million deaths every year, and therefore its swift detection is a desirable objective which would save many lives. A number of molecular-based approaches have been tested for their ability to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), but one drawback is the high cost which results from the necessity of using highly specialized equipment, while the techniques are also difficult to implement in the poorly-equipped laboratories of the developing world. One new development which differs from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques as a means of amplifying and detecting target DNA without a thermocycler is loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). This approach is straightforward and can detect nucleic acids in biological samples at a reasonable cost through the application of the colorimetric properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNP). AuNP can be synthesized and functionalized using thiol-modified DNA oligonucleotides (Au-nanoprobes) enabling the detection of specific target sequences. As the ionic strength increases, the Aunanoprobe aggregation results in a colour change in the solution from red to purple which is clearly visible to the naked eye, or the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) band of AuNP reveals a complementary target to the probe sequence, resulting in no AuNP-probe aggregation and no colour change. This review paper describes assays using LAMP-AuNP-probes as a rapid, simple and relatively inexpensive means of detecting tuberculosis which might therefore be suitable for use in developing countries. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.