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Advances in diagnosis of Tuberculosis: an update into molecular diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of deaths by a single infectious agent and has now been a global public health problem due to increasing numbers of drug-resistant cases. Early and effective treatment is crucial to prevent the emergence of drug-resistance strains. This demands the availability of fast and reliable point-of-care (POC) diagnostic methods for effective case management. Commonly used methods to screen and diagnose TB are clinical, immunological, microscopy, radiography, and bacterial culture. In addition, recent advances in molecular diagnostic methods including MTBDRplus, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), line probe assay (LPA), GeneXpert, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) have been employed to diagnose and characterize TB. These methods can simultaneously identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and mutation(s) associated with routinely used anti-TB drugs. Here, we review the use of currently available diagnostic methods and strategies including conventional to recently implemented next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods used to detect MTB in clinical perspective.

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Fig. 2

Source WHO’s global tuberculosis control report [83], 2012. (Color figure online)

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Acknowledgements

This paper was solely written by the contributing authors without any financial or other support with the organization they are affiliated.

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  1. Bodhraj Acharya and Ashma Acharya contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Laboratory, Bassett Healthcare Network, Cooperstown, NY, 13226, USA

    Bodhraj Acharya

  2. General Welfare Pratisthan, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Ashma Acharya

  3. School of Medicine, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia

    Sanjay Gautam

  4. Department of Health Services, Ministry of Health, Government of Nepal, Teku, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Sagar Prasad Ghimire

  5. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, TB IMPACT Project At Nepal National Tuberculosis Centre, Madhyapur Thimi, Nepal

    Gokul Mishra

  6. Clinical Laboratory Community Memorial Hospital, Hamilton, NY, 13346, USA

    Navin Parajuli

  7. Department of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, 73104, USA

    Bishwa Sapkota

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  1. Bodhraj Acharya
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Acharya, B., Acharya, A., Gautam, S. et al. Advances in diagnosis of Tuberculosis: an update into molecular diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mol Biol Rep 47, 4065–4075 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05413-7

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