Bordetella R-gene™

Whooping cough is caused by the bacterium bordetella pertussis. The bacteria enter the body through the airways and attach to the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract (trachea and bronchi). The inflammatory and necrotic impairments that it causes are due to the pertussis toxin that is released.
Whooping cough is a highly contagious childhood respiratory disease. It mainly affects children under 5 years old and may be very serious in infants under 6 months, because they do not have any immunity against the illness (maternal antibodies against whooping cough do not cross the placenta). The disease can then lead to respiratory complications (apnea and bacterial surinfections). This disease may be fatal among newborn infants under 6 months. Whooping cough can affect people of any age. In well-vaccinated countries, mortality and morbidity have been reduced by 95%. However, a change in the transmission mode of the disease has been observed for some years in the absence of natural or vaccination boosting. It no longer occurs from child to child but from adult or adolescent to non-vaccinated infants.
Bordetella pertussis is generally diagnosed by cell culture. This technique is still the reference technique in all cases of non-vaccinated or incompletely vaccinated patients. Diagnosis by serology is also used but presents problems associated with the vaccination because it is not possible to differentiate between the vaccinal serological response and the response to an infection by the pathogen. Real-time PCR is an effective alternative for diagnosing bordetella because it produces sensitive, specific and faster results than culture.
The BORDETELLA R-gene™ kit enables the detection of bordetella bacteria containing the IS481 sequence (traditionally found in Bordetella pertussis) using real-time PCR on respiratory samples (nasopharyngeal aspiration and expectoration).
Several types of purification systems (automatic and manual) have been validated with the kit. Extracted DNA is then amplified and detected by real-time PCR on the commonly available platforms.
Results are validated with different controls, including an extraction control, all provided in the kit.