Evaluation of Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction (ddPCR) for the Absolute Quantification of Aspergillus species in the Human Airway.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Prior studies illustrate the presence and clinical importance of detecting Aspergillus species in the airways of patients with chronic respiratory disease. Despite this, a low fungal biomass and the presence of PCR inhibitors limits the usefulness of quantitative PCR (qPCR) for accurate absolute quantification of Aspergillus in specimens from the human airway. Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) however, presents an alternative methodology allowing higher sensitivity and accuracy of such quantification but remains to be evaluated in head-to-head fashion using specimens from the human airway. Here, we implement a standard duplex TaqMan PCR protocol, and assess if ddPCR is superior in quantifying airway Aspergillus when compared to standard qPCR.

Methods

SUBMITTER: Poh TY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7247686 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature