Find in Library

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Phage lysin, extracted from three bacteriophages was used in place of antibiotics to control the overgrowth of normal flora in processed sputum samples leading to the sensitive detection of <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</it> using diagnostic luciferase reporter phage assay (DLRPA).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 129 sputum samples were processed by modified Petroff’s method. Two Lowenstein Jensen slopes were inoculated from the processed sputum deposit thus obtained. The remaining deposits were transferred to 7 ml of Middlebrook 7H9 complete medium supplemented with phage lysin and incubated at 37°C. DLRPA was done using phAE129 at days 7, 9, 14 and 21. At the end of day 21, the samples were centrifuged and the pellets were inoculated on to 2 more LJ slopes to validate DLRPA results.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The sensitivity and specificity of DLRPA in detecting <it>M. tuberculosis</it> from sputum specimens was 90% and 81% respectively compared to conventional LJ culture. The agreement between the methods was 87%. The rate of contamination for DLRPA using phage lysin was 9.3%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Phage lysin can be used to decontaminate sputum samples for the detection of <it>M. tuberculosis</it> by DLRPA directly from processed sputum specimens.</p>