MERIDIAN BIOSCIENCE, INC. 280050 illumigene C. difficile

The illumigene C. difficile DNA amplification assay, performed on the illumipro-10, is a qualitative in vitro diagnostic test for the direct detection of toxigenic C. difficile in human stool specimens from pediatric and adult patients suspected of having Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD).The illumigene C. difficile assay utilizes loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification (LAMP) technology to detect the pathogenicity locus (PaLoc) of toxigenic Clostridium difficile. The Clostridium difficile PaLoc is a gene segment present in all known toxigenic C. difficile strains. The C. difficile PaLoc codes for both the Toxin A gene (tcdA) and the Toxin B gene (tcdB), has conserved border regions, and is found at the same site on the C. difficile genome for all toxigenic strains. The illumigene C. difficile assay detects the PaLoc by targeting a partial DNA fragment on the Toxin A gene. The tcdA target region was selected as an intact region remaining in all known A+B+ and A-B+ toxinotypes.