To reduce the morbidity and mortality of candidemia patients through rapid treatment, the development of a simple, rapid molecular diagnostic method that is based on nucleic acid extraction and is superior to conventional methods for detecting Candida in the blood is necessary. We developed a multiplex Candida Pan/internal control (IC) loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay and a simple DNA extraction boiling protocol using Chelex-100 that could extract yeast DNA in blood within 20 min. The Chelex-100/boiling method for DNA extraction showed comparable efficiency to that of the commercial QIAamp UCP Pathogen Mini Kit using Candida albicans qPCR. In addition, the Candida Pan/IC LAMP assay showed superior sensitivity to that of general Candida Pan and species qPCRs against clinical DNA samples extracted with the QIAamp UCP Pathogen Mini Kit and Chelex-100/boiling method. The Candida Pan/IC LAMP assay followed by Chelex-100/boiling-mediated DNA extraction showed high sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%) against clinical samples infected with Candida. These results suggest that the Candida Pan/IC LAMP assay could be used as a rapid molecular diagnostic test for candidemia.
Keywords: Candida albicans; Candida spp.; Chelex-100; DNA extraction; multiplex LAMP.