Interlaboratory Evaluation of Different Extraction and Real-Time PCR Methods for Detection of Coxiella burnetii DNA in Serum

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Microbiology Vol. 48; no. 11; pp. 3923 - 3927
• Main Authors: Tilburg, Jeroen J.H.C, Melchers, Willem J.G, Pettersson, Annika M, Rossen, John W.A, Hermans, Mirjam H.A, van Hannen, Erik J, Nabuurs-Franssen, Marrigje H, de Vries, Maaike C, Horrevorts, Alphons M, Klaassen, Corné H.W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for Microbiology 01.11.2010; American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
• Subjects: Bacteriological Techniques - methods; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Coxiella burnetii; Coxiella burnetii - genetics; Coxiella burnetii - isolation & purification; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; DNA, Bacterial - isolation & purification; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Netherlands; Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Q Fever - diagnosis; Q Fever - microbiology; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Serum - microbiology; Netherlands; Rickettsiales; Polymerase chain reaction; Bacteria; Serum; Rickettsieae; Method; Detection; Real time; Coxiella burnetii; Rickettsiaceae
• ISSN: 0095-1137; 1098-660X
• DOI: 10.1128/JCM.01006-10

In the Netherlands, there is an ongoing and unparalleled outbreak of Q fever. Rapid and reliable methods to identify patients infected with Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, are urgently needed. We evaluated the performance of different DNA extraction methods and real-time PCR assays that are in use in seven diagnostic or reference laboratories in the Netherlands. A low degree of variation in the sensitivities of most of the developed real-time PCR assays was observed. However, PCR assays amplifying short DNA fragments yielded better results than those producing large DNA fragments. With regard to DNA extraction, the automated MagNA Pure Compact system and the manual QIAamp DNA mini kit consistently yielded better results than either the MagNA Pure LC system and NucliSens EasyMag (both automated) or the High Pure viral nucleic acid kit (manual). The present study shows that multiple combinations of DNA extraction kits and real-time PCR assays offer equivalent solutions to detect C. burnetii DNA in serum samples from patients suspected to have Q fever.