Diagnostic des infections bactériennes par les puces à ADN

The diagnosis of bacterial infections relies on isolation of the pathogen, which cannot be achieved in the time of care. Also, culture is poorly suited to the diagnosis of polymicrobial infections. An alternative is the detection of specific DNA sequences in clinical specimen by DNA microarrays. The first use of microarrays as a diagnostic tool dates from 1995. This review focuses on the development of different DNA chips for diagnosing bacterial infections such as respiratory, digestive or systemic diseases. These studies demonstrated that DNA microarrays are a reliable, rapid and reproducible for the diagnosis of infectious diseases caused by bacteria. High cost and technicity are two limits for the actual use of DNA microarray for the routine diagnosis of bacterial infections.