Advanced PCR-based molecular diagnosis of gastrointestinal infections: challenges and opportunities

ABSTRACT

Acute infections of the gastrointestinal tract are among the most common infectious diseases. The etiological agents of gastroenteritis may be bacteria, viruses or protozoa. Identification of the etiological agents of acute diarrhea is important for the treatment and management of diarrheal diseases. Conventional stool culture for bacteria shows a low sensitivity and requires more than 24 hours. In addition, other approaches to detect viruses and protozoa mainly involve antigen detection, but this is not available for all enteropathogens, and microscopic observation requires training and is of low sensitivity. In this review, the authors describe currently available molecular methods to detect different enteropathogens and analyze the main advantages and disadvantages of these methods for laboratory diagnosis of gastroenteritis.

KEYWORDS:

• Gastroenteritis
• diarrhea
• enteropathogens
• bacteria
• viruses
• protozoa
• DNA-based tools
• culture
• antigen test
• microscopic observation

Declaration of interest

The authors thank the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III – co-financed by the European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’ ERDF, Spanish Network for the Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD12/0015) and FIS 14/0755. This study was also supported by grant 2014SGR0653 from the Departament d’Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.