Distressing effects on animal and human health with lethal progression, being used as bioweapon and shared features with non-pathogenic bacteria demands sensitive, specific, safe, cost effective and rapid detection methods for anthrax causing organisms. Conventional microbiology based diagnostics for anthrax are time consuming and need sophisticated equipment, while molecular diagnostics require less time and labor. The Loop mediated isothermal amplification assay (LAMP) is rapid, sensitive and specific assay and requires no specialized equipment. In the present study, we developed a LAMP assay for rapid as well as specific detection of Bacillus anthracis. The optimized assay produced positive results with the Sterne strain and one field isolate of B. anthracis and, negative results with other bacteria of the same and different genera within 2 h. Sensitivity was 500 fg of total DNA of B. anthracis, which was 100 times more sensitive than conventional PCR. The present study also demonstrated that the simple method of total DNA extraction by repeated boiling and freezing will not adversely affect the LAMP results. In conclusion, the optimized LAMP assay is a promising tool for the specific, sensitive, less time-consuming diagnosis for anthrax causing bacteria and also, for detecting the virulence of suspected B. anthracis cultures.

对动物和人类健康造成致命影响，被用作生物武器并与非致病细菌具有共同特征，因此需要灵敏、特异、安全、具有成本效益和快速的炭疽病原体检测方法。传统的基于微生物学的炭疽诊断耗时且需要复杂的设备，而分子诊断需要更少的时间和劳动力。Loop 介导的等温扩增试验 (LAMP) 是一种快速、灵敏和特异的试验，不需要专门的设备。在本研究中，我们开发了一种 LAMP 检测，用于快速和特异性检测炭疽芽孢杆菌。优化的测定对 Sterne 菌株和一种炭疽芽孢杆菌的现场分离物产生了阳性结果并且，2 小时内与其他相同和不同属的细菌的结果为阴性。灵敏度为 500 fg炭疽芽孢杆菌总 DNA，比常规 PCR 灵敏度高 100 倍。本研究还表明，通过反复煮沸和冷冻提取总 DNA 的简单方法不会对 LAMP 结果产生不利影响。总之，优化的 LAMP 检测是一种很有前途的工具，可用于对引起炭疽的细菌进行特异性、灵敏、耗时较少的诊断，也可用于检测疑似炭疽杆菌培养物的毒力。