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Diagnosis of Candida albicans: conventional diagnostic methods compared to the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay

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Abstract

Candida species cause a wide range of opportunistic infections in humans and animals. The detection of Candida species by conventional diagnosis methods is costly and time consuming. This study was conducted for the first time to evaluate and compare a relatively new molecular assay and the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technique with conventional methods for detection of Candida albicans. In this study, 70 different species of Candida identified by conventional methods were cultured on Sabouraud chloramphenicol agar medium and then the genomic DNA was extracted. The LAMP technique was performed using specific primers targeting the ITS2 gene of C. albicans. The analytical sensitivity and specificity of LAMP were measured using a tenfold serial dilution prepared from extracted DNA from standard C. albicans strain from 1 ng to 1 fg and the DNA samples of other clinical Candida species and three non-Candida yeast. Out of 70 yeast samples analyzed by LAMP technique, 24 samples (34.3%) were positive for C. albicans. Comparison of the results showed that the CHROMagar Candida and germ tube production methods are quite consistent with the LAMP technique, while the agreement amount between the results of carbohydrate assimilation and chlamydoconidia generation assays and LAMP technique was 98.5% and 72.8%, respectively. The detection limits of the LAMP assay were 10 fg of the DNA from the standard C. albicans strain. No amplification was observed in the DNA samples of other yeast species and only the DNA sample of standard C. albicans strain was amplified. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the LAMP method is as specific and precise as common diagnostic methods, but is faster, easier deployable or more sensitive. Therefore, this method can be used as a suitable complementary assay for Candida diagnosis in medical diagnostic laboratories and field conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate all participants who were involved in the management of the patient and the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hepatitis Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Science, Khorramabad, Iran

    Shirzad Fallahi & Asghar Sepahvand

  2. Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

    Shirzad Fallahi & Asghar Sepahvand

  3. Department of Biotechnology, Islamic Azad University, Damghan Branch, Damghan, Iran

    Milad Babaei

  4. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Islamic Republic of Iran

    Ali Rostami

  5. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

    Hadi Mirahmadi

  6. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Zahra Arab-Mazar

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  1. Shirzad Fallahi
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  2. Milad Babaei
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  3. Ali Rostami
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  6. Asghar Sepahvand
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Correspondence to Asghar Sepahvand.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Fallahi, S., Babaei, M., Rostami, A. et al. Diagnosis of Candida albicans: conventional diagnostic methods compared to the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay. Arch Microbiol 202, 275–282 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01736-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01736-7

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