Abstract

DEVELOPMENT OF MOLECULAR DIAGNOSIS METHOD FOR IDENTIFICATION OF HCV USING LAMP AND RT-PCR TECHNIQUES

Nawras Helal Jasim*

Abstract

Hepatitis C is blood-borne viral disease worldwide. Chronic hepatitis C infection leads to cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure and liver cancer. Antiviral therapy exists and approximately 50% of infected individuals can be cured.The importance of low cost molecular diagnostic assays are especially important for the developing nations as they are already burdened with increasing number of hepatitis C patients who are generally economically backward. The aim of this thesis was to analyze blood samples using molecular technique like q-PCR and LAMP. Out of twenty samples analyzed q-RTPCR, twenty samples were positive and other twenty samples showed negative. In summary we have shown that LAMP is a rapid sensitive and specific method for detecting HCV in settings where real time PCR machine may not be available. The only limitation of the study is that we have used only ten clinically infected samples to compare with ten negative controls.

Keywords: HCV, LAMP, RT-PCR and Molecular Diagnosis.