Development of a sensitive loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay that provides specimen-to-result diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus infection in 30 minutes.

Rapid isothermal amplification methods have recently been introduced, and some of these methods offer significant advantages over PCR. The objective of this study was to develop a rapid and sensitive multiplex loop-mediated isothermal amplification (M-LAMP) assay for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus subgroups A and B (RSV A and B). We designed six primers each for the matrix gene of RSV A and the polymerase gene of RSV B and developed an M-LAMP assay by using a commercially available master mix and a real-time fluorometer (Genie II; Optigene, United Kingdom) that displays real-time amplification, time to positivity, and amplicon annealing temperature (Tm). The M-LAMP was evaluated against PCR by testing 275 nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens. The final optimized M-LAMP assay had a mean amplification time of 14.2 min (compared with 90 to 120 min for PCR) and had an analytical sensitivity of 1 genome equivalent (ge) for both RSV A and B. Using PCR as a comparator, M-LAMP had a sensitivity of 100% (81/81) and specificity of 100% (194/194). We also evaluated a 3- to 10-min specimen processing method involving vortexing with glass beads and heating to 98°C in M-swab medium (Copan Italia, Brescia, Italy) and found that this rapid processing method allowed detection of 37/41 (90.2%) of positives when we used extracted nucleic acid. In summary, the M-LAMP assay had excellent sensitivity and specificity for detecting RSV A and B in NP specimens and, when coupled with a rapid specimen preparation method, could provide a specimen-to-result diagnosis time of 30 min.