Diagnostic accuracy of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) for detection of Leishmania DNA in buffy coat from visceral leishmaniasis patients

BACKGROUND: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) remains as one of the most neglected tropical diseases with over 60% of the world's total VL cases occurring in the Indian subcontinent. Due to the invasive risky procedure and technical expertise required in the classical parasitological diagnosis, the goal of the VL experts has been to develop noninvasive procedure(s) applicable in the field settings. Several serological and molecular biological approaches have been developed over the last decades, but only a few are applicable in field settings that can be performed with relative ease. Recently, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has emerged as a novel nucleic acid amplification method for diagnosis of VL. In this study, we have evaluated the LAMP assay using buffy coat DNA samples…