LOOP-MEDIATED ISOTHERMAL AMPLIFICATION METHOD - PERSPECTIVE TOOL IN VETERINARY MEDICINE

Abstract

In veterinary medicine, rapid and accurate diagnosis is crucial for early therapy application, disease dissemination and animal and public health prevention. On the other hand, developing countries are challenged with implementing modern diagnosis methods and expensive equipment. This review should provide consensus in formation about the Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) method and its application possibilities in veterinary science. Different assays and variations of LAMP have evolved through the years in distinct sectors such as: animal husbandry, food safety and sustainable food systems, and primarily as a diagnostic tool for the rapid detection and identification of several etiological agents significant to veterinary medicine. The method relies on nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) amplification followed by specific sequence detection. For this purpose, both clinical and environmental samples are considered. In particular, animal blood, urine, feces, tissue, and swabs are processed adequately. The main advantage of LAMP over conventional molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is its simplicity of performance. As an isothermal method, LAMP is carried out in a constantin cubation temperature (around 60 oC), which excludes the usage of complex and expensive equipment. In addition, due to high amplification efficiency, the end point results are provided in a shorter time (30-60 minutes). This gives a possibility to be easily employed in low-budget laboratories. Furthermore, the LAMP method and its variations are preferred because of the high sensitivity of the assay and there liability of the results. Also, LAMP assays have shown acceptable specificity which underlines the importance of the method to be introduced as a routinely used one.