[Molecular biological diagnosis of fungal infection]

In the deep-seated mycosis that happens often to compromised hosts, an early diagnosis and treatment influence the life prognosis. Because there are a lot of cases with a difficult identification of the etiologic agent by the microscopy and culture, a molecular biological diagnosis that is rapid, highly sensitive and specific is expected. However, a genetic testing of pathogenic fungi has not been a healthcare service provided by health insurance in Japan yet. In this paper, the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method that is a new genetic test method is showed in addition to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method that is a current mainstream test. The mycosis gene diagnosis enables rapid identification of a pathogenic fungus, and so it is expected that the diagnostic method is utilized for a rapid and best therapeutic choice and an epidemiologic analysis. The achievement of an early clinical application will be hoped for in the future.