Development and application of a method to detect 27 respiratory pathogens using multiplex RT-PCR combined with MassARRAY technology

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Respiratory tract infections are the most common infections that lead to morbidity and mortality worldwide. Early recognition and precise diagnosis of microbial etiology is important to treat LRTIs promptly, specifically and effectively. OBJECTIVES: To establish a method based on multiplex reverse transcription (MRT)-PCR and MassARRAY technology for the simultaneous detection of 27 respiratory pathogens and explore its clinical application value. METHODS: Analytical sensitivity and specificity of the MRT-PCR-MassARRAY system were validated using inactivated bacterial and viral strains. Also we analyzed samples from 207 patients by MassARRAY methods and compared the results with consensus PCR/reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. RESULTS: The minimum detection limit of our MRT-PCR-MassARRAY method for pathogens was 10-100 copies/μl, with high specificity. Comparison test with consensus PCR/RT-PCR on 207 clinical samples, the positive, negative, and total correlation rates were 100, 98.68, and 99.03%, respectively. There was a high degree of agreement between the test results of the two methods (P < 0.01 by McNemar's test). CONCLUSION: Our detection system of 27 respiratory pathogens based on MassARRAY technology has high sensitivity and specificity, high throughput, and is simple to operate. It provides diagnostic value for the clinical diagnosis of respiratory pathogens and is of great significance in the screening of respiratory pathogens.