POSTER PRESENTATION
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM
Closing deadline: May 27, 2013
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The abstract is limited to 300 words only
References should not be included
Please abide to the suggested format. Refer to the sample abstract below
SAMPLE ABSTRACT
COMPARISON OF REAL TIME REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION-POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION
ASSAYS FOR THE DETECTION OF DENGUE VIRUS
Tan KK, Johari J, Abd-Jamil J, Zulkifle NI, Sulaiman S, Zainal N, Ab.Rahman HA, Sam SS, Teoh BT,
AbuBakar S*
Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre, Department of Medical Microbiology,
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Globally, dengue has emerged as a major public health problem. Prompt diagnosis, especially
during the acute phase of illness is essential for immediate and appropriate disease
management. In the present study, we evaluated two dengue real time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kits (in-house and PrimerDesignTM Genesig) for the
detection of dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4 against in-house developed 2-step multiplex
RT-PCR assay. In order to assess the ability of the real time RT-PCR kits to detect all major
circulating dengue strains in Malaysia, a total of 14 dengue subtypes comprising of serotypes 1,
2, 3 and 4 were used. These isolates represent the current and past circulating dengue virus
genotypes in the country. The viruses were propagated through one passage in cell culture
prior to the testing. The overall analytical reactivity is 100% (14/14) for both real time RT-PCR
kits. The performance of both real time RT-PCR assays was examined in comparison to the inhouse 2-step multiplex RT-PCR assay. A total of 74 acute dengue-suspected samples were
obtained from the Diagnostic Virology Repository at University Malaya Medical Center. All
samples were tested negative by IgM capture ELISA. The percentage of positive samples by inhouse real time RT-PCR, commercial real time RT-PCR and conventional in-house RT-PCR assays
were 27.02% (20/74), 33.78 % (25/74) and 32.74% (24/74), respectively. Findings from the
study suggest both the in-house and commercial real time RT-PCR kits were able to detect all
the major circulating dengue strains in Malaysia. The performance of commercial real time RTPCR kits is comparable to that of the conventional in-house RT-PCR method.
*Corresponding author’s email: sazaly@um.edu.my