Development of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) as a diagnostic tool of toxoplasmosis

Infection with Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections in humans and other warm-blooded animals. This paper describes the development of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) specific to the single-copy gene SAG1 as a diagnostic tool of toxoplasmosis. A set of primers, composed of outer primers, inner primers and loop primers was designed from a published sequence data (GeneBank Acc. no. AY651825). Experiments showed that when LAMP was applied to sample organs, amplification absolutely required the loop primers to complete. SAG1-based LAMP turned out to be very sensitive, exhibiting a degree of sensitivity higher than the conventional PCR. LAMP is a convenient and sensitive diagnostic tool for routine health control of toxoplasmosis.