engleski

Point-of-care testing for sexually transmitted infections

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are important causes of morbidity worldwide. The most common bacterial STIs, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (N. gonorrhoeae), if left untreated, cause serious sequelae such as pelvic inflammatory disease in women, ectopic pregnancy, infertility, and preterm birth. Therefore, prompt, and accurate diagnosis of STIs, followed by effective treatment, is a key factor in their control and prevention. Molecular diagnostic methods, primarily nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) have improved the diagnosis of STIs, but they still suffer from relatively long turnaround time, and require laboratory infrastructure which limits their accessibility. Development and introduction of sensitive and specific point-of-care (POC) tests for STIs, which provide results within 60 minutes or less, allowed provision of treatment at the first visit. Indeed, the POC tests can shorten the time to initiation of treatment leading to rapid interruption of disease transmission. There are two main types of POC tests: NAAT-based systems and non-NAAT-based systems. Non-NAAT based POC tests are antigen detection tests which are rapid, inexpensive, simple to use, lateral flow assays. However, they all show lower sensitivity compared to the NAATs, and therefore are not suitable for use in screening purposes. NAATs POC tests are usually based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). There are few CE marked and/or FDA cleared NAATs based POC tests for detection C. trachomatis and/or N. gonorrhoeae. In addition, multiplex POC test is developed that simultaneously detect 10 viral, bacterial, and protozoan sexually transmitted pathogens from a single patient sample. There are also high expectations from the recently developed POC tests using LAMP technology that can be managed via mobile devices.

molecular POC diagnostics ; STI

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