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Rapid detection of urinary tract infections caused by Proteus spp. using PNA-FISH

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Abstract

We developed a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method for the rapid detection of Proteus spp. in urine, using a novel peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe. Testing on 137 urine samples from patients with urinary tract infections has shown specificity and sensitivity values of 98 % (95 % CI, 93.2–99.7) and 100 % (95 % CI, 80,8–100), respectively, when compared with CHROMagar Orientation medium. Results indicate that PNA-FISH is a reliable alternative to traditional culture methods and can reduce the diagnosis time to approximately 2 h.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Cristina Silva for providing us the urine samples. This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Postdoctoral Fellowship SFRH/BPD/74480/2010 and project PIC/IC/82815/2007) and by the European Commission’s Framework Programme (FP7: “COST-Action TD1004: Theragnostics for imaging and therapy”).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBB—Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    C. Almeida, J. C. Bento, N. Cerca & M. J. Vieira

  2. Environmental Healthcare Unit, School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Bassett Crescent East, SO16 7PX, Southampton, UK

    C. Almeida & C. W. Keevil

  3. LEPAE, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    C. Almeida & N. F. Azevedo

  4. Serviço de Microbiologia, Centro Hospitalar do Porto, Hospital Geral de Santo António, 4000, Porto, Portugal

    H. Ramos

  5. Centro de Engenharia Biólogica, Universidade do Minho, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal

    C. Almeida

Authors
  1. C. Almeida
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  2. N. F. Azevedo
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  3. J. C. Bento
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  4. N. Cerca
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  5. H. Ramos
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  6. M. J. Vieira
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  7. C. W. Keevil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Almeida.

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Figure S1

The 16S rRNA Proteus sequences not detected by theProPNA190 probe. Probe (reverse complementary) alignment with P. vulgaris J01874 (accession number: S000414235); P. mirabilis EF371001 (S000806301); P. mirabilis HQ407312 (S002305608); P. mirabilis HQ231796 (S002409155) and Proteus sp. HQ588328 (S002950968); showing the mismatch base pairs (grey squares) in different the different positions

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Almeida, C., Azevedo, N.F., Bento, J.C. et al. Rapid detection of urinary tract infections caused by Proteus spp. using PNA-FISH. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 32, 781–786 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-012-1808-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-012-1808-2

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