Molecular Culture for the Diagnosis of Neonatal Sepsis

PCR based technique that amplifies the interspace region in bacterial DNA, that is located between the genes coding for 16S and 23S ribosomal subunits. Primers are used for the majority of known pathogenic phyla, i.e. FAFV, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. The nucleotide length of the Interspace region is species specific for bacterial single species. Bacteria all have one or multiple alleles for this interspace region. The combination of the amount of alleles, as well as the nucleotide strand length, makes for a specific profile that is distinctive for the species. Available software is able to match this profile to a particular pathogen, enabling confirmation and identification of bacteria in samples within 5 hours in our experimental workflow.