A Rapid Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay Targeting hspX for the Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex

A rapid, simple, and low-cost diagnostic tool for tuberculosis (TB) detection is urgently needed in countries with a high TB burden. Here, we report a novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay targeting the hspX gene for the rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum, and M. microti. The specificity of this assay was evaluated using 4 reference strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC), 22 species of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), 7 non-mycobacterial species, and 50 clinical M. tuberculosis isolates. All the reference MTC strains and M. tuberculosis clinical isolates were successfully detected by this method, and there were no false-positive results with NTM or non-mycobacterial species, which demonstrates the high specificity of this assay for MTC. The detection limit was 10 copies of MTC genome within 27 min, and the detection speed of this assay was higher than that of any other isothermal methods reported so far. Because of its speed, simplicity, sensitivity, specificity, and inexpensiveness, the TB hspX LAMP assay is a potential gene diagnostic method for TB detection in developing countries with a high TB burden.