Question

PCR is a useful tool for early diagnosis of an Infectious disease. Elaborate.

Answer 1

The specificity and sensitivity of PCR is useful for the diagnosis of inherited disorders (genetic diseases), viral diseases, bacterial diseases, etc., The diagnosis and treatment of a particular disease often require identifying a particular pathogen. Traditional methods of identification involve culturing these organisms from clinical specimens and performing metabolic and other tests to identify them. The concept behind PCR-based diagnosis of infectious diseases is simple - if the pathogen is present in a clinical specimen its DNA will be present.

Its DNA has unique sequences that can be detected by PCR, often using the clinical specimen (for example, blood, stool, spinal fluid, or sputum) in the PCR mixture.