Comparison of Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) and PCR to detect of Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever Borreliae in Tick DNA samples

Introduction:The genus Borrelia currently contains 37 species of spirochetes, many of which cause Lyme and relapsing fever diseases in humans and domestic animals. Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever (TBRF) caused by Borreliae spp. is transmitted via bites of the soft tick Ornithodoros spp. that primarily inhabits caves and small niches. TBRF is an endemic disease in Iran, with more 100 annual cases.Material and Methods: Sixty soft ticks of Ornithodoros spp. were collected from endemic areas of Iran. The extracted DNA samples were examined by glpQ-LAMP and glpQ-PCR along positive and negative controls. Visual analysis and agarose gel electrophoresis were used to detect amplification products in glpQ-LAMP and glpQ-PCR methods respectively.Results: Visual analysis of the LAMP reaction tubes showed a white turbidity corresponds to glpQ gene amplification in 19 DNA thick samples. Whereas agarose gel electrophoresis analysis showed the amplification of a 200 bp fragment in 13 extracted DNA.Conclusion: The glpQ-LAMP assay is more sensitive than glpQ-PCR to detect TBRF Borreliae. In contrast to the PCR, the LAMP has duel advantages of being simple to carry out and cost-effective. So the glpQ-LAMP can be used in epidemiologic studies and in low-resource regions.