Lyme disease is a disease affecting a growing segment of the population. The number of ticks found in nature is increasing dramatically every year, resulting in a massive increase in the incidence of Lyme disease. Depending on the stage of the disease, the spirochete infection can cause adverse skin symptoms, dangerous joint, neurological and even cardiac complications. Existing treatments using antibiotics from the penicillin, cephalosporin and tetracycline groups are effective, but in order to avoid complications it is extremely important to detect the disease as early as possible.
The subject of the invention is a Looped UVEx Probe and its use together with a pair of appropriately selected primers in an optimized PCR reaction (with Taq DNA polymerase of the “Hot Start” type). The aim of the method is to enable rapid detection of the product formed in the PCR reaction to be performed by observing the color change of the reaction mixture, directly in the tube, after exposure to UV light. The applied technology also allows improving the specificity of the PCR reaction and reducing the number of false positives obtained during tests aimed at detecting the presence of specific DNA fragments in the tested sample.
The described technology finds application in the diagnosis of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases, particularly in the comprehensive detection and identification in patients of various tick-borne microorganisms.
