Publication:

Improving gonorrhoea molecular diagnostics: Genome mining-based identification of identical multi-repeat sequences (IMRS) in Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Background: Curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae (N. gonorrhoeae), are a major cause of poor pregnancy outcomes. The infection is often asymp- tomatic in pregnant women, and a syndrome-based approach of testing leads to a missed diag- nosis. Culture followed by microscopy is inadequate and time-consuming. The gold standard nucleic acid amplification tests require advanced infrastructure settings, whereas point-of-care tests are limited to immunoassays with sensitivities and specificities insufficient to accurately diagnose asymptomatic cases. This necessitates the development and validation of assays that are fit for purpose. Methods: We identified new diagnostic target biomarker regions for N. gonorrhoeae using an al- gorithm for genome mining of identical multi-repeat sequences (IMRS). These were then devel- oped as DNA amplification primers to design better diagnostic assays. To test the primer pair, genomic DNA was 10-fold serially diluted (100 pg/μL to 1 × 10