Evaluation of TaqMan Array card (TAC) for the detection of 28 respiratory pathogens

BACKGROUND: Respiratory infections are a serious threat to human health. So, rapid detection of all respiratory pathogens can facilitate prompt treatment and prevent the deterioration of respiratory disease. Previously published primers and probes of the TaqMan array card (TAC) for respiratory pathogens are not sensitive to Chinese clinical specimens. This study aimed to develop and improve the TAC assay to detect 28 respiratory viral and bacterial pathogens in a Chinese population. METHODS: To improve the sensitivity, we redesigned the primers and probes, and labeled the probes with minor groove binders. The amplification efficiency, sensitivity, and specificity of the primers and probes were determined using target-gene containing standard plasmids. The detection performance of the TAC was evaluated on 754 clinical specimens and the results were compared with those from conventional methods. RESULTS: The performance of the TAC assay was evaluated using 754 clinical throat swab samples and the results were compared with those from gold-standard methods. The sensitivity and specificity were 95.4 and 96.6%, respectively. The lowest detection limit of the TAC was 10 to 100 copies/μL. CONCLUSIONS: TAC is an efficient, accurate, and high-throughput approach to detecting multiple respiratory pathogens simultaneously and is a promising tool for the identification of pathogen outbreaks.