Molecular Diagnostics
The most commonly used molecular diagnostic method in the diagnosis of infectious diseases is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This is a method which gives possibility to obtain millions of copies of a specific section of nucleic acid, which allows the detection of the target infection even at its lowest concentration in the research sample.
The method was developed in 1983 by Kary Mullis, for this he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Since the method's invention, PCR has been widely used in many medical and scientific disciplines, including molecular diagnostics, microbiology, genetics, clinical diagnostics, forensics, environmental sciences, heredity research, and parental identification.
PCR is widely used for the analysis of clinical samples to detect infectious agents such as: Coronavirus, HIV, Hepatitis, Human papilloma virus, Epstein-Barr virus, Malaria and anthrax pathogens. PCR is very important for the early detection of HIV, since viral DNA can be detected immediately after infection, unlike immunological methods, which can detect antibodies weeks or months after infection.
The PCR method may also be used to assess the severity of viral infection, which has a great impact on diagnostics.
PCR is a unique method for rapid detection of pathogens, which is especially important in the case of infectious agents whose identification requires cultivation by traditional microbiological methods, which is often a problem, or requires a long time to obtain a final diagnosis. With the ability to generate quantitative and genotyping data along with qualitative, the mentioned method became even more informative.
