In addition, highest detection sensitivity for B. burgdorferi was obtained using the RecA3 molecular beacon (Figures 2, and data not shown). Therefore, we used the RecA3 molecular beacon for all further experiments. Figure 2 Molecular beacons can detect B. burgdorferi between 1 and 10 6 in multiplex assay, when C3H mouse DNA was also included. Amplification plots of recA and nidogen genes in PCR assays learn more to estimate quantities of B. burgdorferi (A) and mouse (C) DNA are shown. Uninfected mouse heart DNA (containing 105 nidogen copies) spiked with ten-fold dilutions

of B. burgdorferi strain N40 ranging from 1 to 106 were used in the PCR assays containing both RecA3 and Nidogen molecular beacons. Sensitivity and specificity of the detection system is indicated by the ability of RecA3 and Nidogen molecular beacons to quantify the amplicons from both the recA and the nidogen genes in the same PCR

assay tubes. A high coefficient of correlation Acadesine purchase (r2 = 0.996) between the Ct values and the spirochete number obtained from the standard curve (B) indicates that the molecular beacons can be used effectively to quantify spirochete burden in infected tissues using multiplex assay system. B. burgdorferi and mouse DNA can be quantified simultaneously using molecular beacons in multiplex system Since molecular beacons are specific hybridization probes for particular PCR products, simultaneous detection of pathogen and host PCR products is possible using molecular beacons tagged with different fluorophores. Therefore, normalization of the host DNA in different tissue samples is more convenient and accurate. To test this premise, a ten-fold serial dilution of genomic DNA of B. burgdorferi strain N40 spiked in the same concentration of the uninfected mouse tissue DNA, i.e., 105 nidogen copies per reaction, were used as template for the PCR assays. The “”threshold cycle”" (Ct) is the PCR cycle at which specific fluorescence rises significantly above the fluorescence background. In this assay, the threshold was set at twenty times the standard deviation of the noise

in the background fluorescence of each PCR assay (recorded between the third and 20th thermal cycle). Amplification plots of the recA gene in the PCR assays (Figure Galeterone 2A), as detected by fluorescence intensity at the end of each cycle, show that the presence of 1 to 106 spirochetes can be detected using the RecA3 molecular beacon. Indeed, presence of ten spirochetes in a reaction was detected consistently in different assays, indicating reproducibility and sensitivity of this detection probe (data not shown). SU5416 However, presence of approximately one spirochete in the reaction mixture was sometimes indistinguishable from background noise. A standard curve (Figure 2B) generated by plotting the log of the known initial copy numbers of B.