Recombinase polymerase amplification as a promising tool in hepatitis C virus diagnosis

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a significant health problem and represents a heavy load on some countries like Egypt in which about 20% of the total population are infected. Initial infection is usually asymptomatic and result in chronic hepatitis that give rise to complications including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The management of HCV infection should not only be focus on therapy, but also to screen carrier individuals in order to prevent transmission. In the present, molecular detection and quantification of HCV genome by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) represent the gold standard in HCV diagnosis and plays a crucial role in the management of therapeutic regimens. However, real time PCR is a complicated approach and of limited distribution. On the other hand, isothermal DNA amplification techniques have been developed and offer molecular diagnosis of infectious dieses at point-of-care. In this review we discuss recombinase polymerase amplification technique and illustrate its diagnostic value over both PCR and other isothermal amplification techniques.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus; Nucleic acid testing; Polymerase chain reaction; Point-of-care; Recombinase polymerase amplification

Core tip: Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) shows many advantages over both real time polymerase chain reaction and other isothermal Amplification methods. In this review we show the importance of molecular detection methods and how isothermal amplification techniques offer molecular point-of-care diagnosis. RPA shows unique characteristics among isothermal approaches that makes it a promising tool in the molecular diagnosis. Because hepatitis C virus is an endemic viral infection, we suggest that RPA may play an important role and save much time in screening infected individuals and managing the therapeutic course.