DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL LATERAL FLOW IMMUNOASSAY FOR THE RAPID DETECTION OF ENTERIC BACTERIA

摘要

Enteric bacteria are responsible for a large proportion of diarrhoeal outbreaks worldwide, with less developed countries reporting more frequent diarrhoeal outbreaks than first world countries. The most common route of transmission is via consumption of faecal contaminated water resources. Identification and detection of these bacterial contaminants plays a pivotal role in the treatment processes required to quell the effects of outbreaks. The gold standard for diagnosing enteric pathogens has been conventional culture methodologies linked with confirmational tests such as biochemical and serological tests which are known to be laborious, tedious and time consuming (Girones et. al., 2010). The integration of molecular methods for direct detection of pathogens has become popular as it is capable of greatly reducing the time required for accurate detection. Assays such as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) can detect multiple pathogens in a single assay and has been successfully used to detect enteric bacteria from various sample types, reducing the analysis time from 3-7 days to 18-24 hours (Toma et al., 2003; Brandal et al., 2006; Thiem et al., 2004). A downfall of conventional PCR is that the results can only be visualized using gel electrophoresis that requires specific equipment and some expertise thus confining it to a laboratory. A lateral flow immunoassay for the detection of these amplified pathogens was developed and applied to various environmental samples.