Loop-mediated isothermal amplification for pecies surveillance in under-resourced setting: a review of evidence.

Introduction: Non-albicans species (NACS) have emerged as a major public health burden, although they are still underappreciated. Some NACS have intrinsic antifungal resistance, requiring constant surveillance to improve patient care and thwart outbreaks of recalcitrant candida infections. However, effective species surveillance has relied on PCR-based or other high-end techniques that are largely unaffordable in under-resourced countries. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has emerged as a potentially effective and affordable technique for infectious disease surveillance, especially in under-resourced settings.

Areas Covered: We critically reviewed current literature on the application of LAMP for species identification in pure fungal isolates, and in clinical and non-clinical samples.

Expert Opinion: LAMP has been studied for species identification, including the NACS. Besides a short turnaround time, LAMP has analytical sensitivity and specificity that are not only higher than culture method but also comparable with conventional and quantitative PCR techniques. However, extensive evaluation of LAMP for species detection using various types of clinical and environmental samples is required before deploying the technique for species surveillance.