Question

Why is the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) preferred over conventional culture and serological methods for early disease diagnosis?

पर्याय

• It relies on antigen-antibody colour reactions that require high concentrations of pathogen proteins

• It synthesizes therapeutic proteins inside the patient's cells during testing

• It can detect and amplify pathogen nucleic acids from as little as a single molecule before clinical symptoms appear

• It requires living pathogen cultures to generate detectable visible colonies

Answer 1

Conventional methods require detectable titers of antibodies or pathogens, which only occur after significant multiplication. PCR can amplify trace amounts of DNA or RNA from a single molecule, enabling diagnosis before symptoms arise.