Use of a locked-nucleic-acid oligomer in the clamped-probe assay for detection of a minority Pfcrt K76T mutant population of Plasmodium falciparum.

Given the emergence of drug resistance and the high rate of polyclonal microorganism infections, the availability of a fast and sensitive test to detect minority mutant populations would be an improvement in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. A clamped-probe real-time PCR assay to diagnose the Plasmodium falciparum K76T mutation in clone populations was developed, using a wild-type-specific locked-nucleic-acid-containing oligomer to suppress wild-type PCR amplification and to enhance melting analysis with a mutation-specific detection probe.