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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2005, p. 4585-4591, Vol. 43, No. 9
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.43.9.4585-4591.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Public Health Research Institute Tuberculosis Center,1 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, International Center for Public Health, 225 Warren St., Newark, New Jersey 07103,2 Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada,3 Oxer Technologies, New York,4 Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York5
Received 26 December 2004/ Returned for modification 31 March 2005/ Accepted 17 May 2005
Drug resistance, particularly vancomycin and methicillin resistance, in Staphylococcus aureus continues to emerge as a significant public health threat in both the hospital and community settings. In addition to the limited treatment options, S. aureus strains acquire and express numerous virulence factors that continue to increase its ability to cause a wide spectrum of human disease. As a result, empirical treatment decisions are confounded and there is a heightened need for a diagnostic test (or assay) to rapidly identify antibiotic resistance and specific virulence determinants and indicate the appropriate treatment. To that end we developed a platform using multiplex molecular beacon probes with real-time PCR for the rapid detection of drug resistance-determining genes and virulence factors in S. aureus. In this study, we demonstrate the specificity and sensitivity of our platform for detection of the genes conferring methicillin (mecA) and vancomycin (vanA) resistance as well as a gene encoding the virulence factor Panton-Valentine leucocidin (lukF) in S. aureus isolates.
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