Nucleic Acid Testing Are Used For Detecting And Diagnose Several Diseases Caused Due To Certain Pathogens

 

Nucleic Acid Testing 

Nucleic acid testing (NAT) is a type of laboratory test that can detect and identify microorganisms, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. These tests are used to help diagnose diseases, determine if a patient has been exposed to certain pathogens, and direct the most appropriate therapy. NAT can be performed on a variety of clinical specimens, including blood, plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid, sterile body fluids, sputum, urine, stool, and tissues.

Specimens are first extracted from the sample, then the nucleic acids are amplified or detected using various methods, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real-time PCR, microarrays, sequencing and others.

According to Coherent Market Insights the Nucleic Acid Testing Market Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook and Opportunity Analysis, 2022-2028.

During the pandemic, many laboratories shifted from traditional culture-based tests to NAT in order to expedite results and increase sensitivity. Along with being more accurate than previous diagnostics, molecular testing has the potential to improve patient outcomes by facilitating the development of personalized medicine.

A major advantage of NAT is that it can directly detect viral nucleic acids, such as the respiratory virus RNA, in a sample. This helps avoid the degradation of the RNA that occurs during long-term transport of the samples, which is especially important in cases where the specimens must be sent to a CDC for confirmation.

The sensitivity of NATs is also superior to that of the culture-based methods, which can be affected by the number of cells and the presence of other components in the specimen. This makes NATs ideal for diagnosing infectious diseases.

Another benefit of NAT is that it can be used to identify genetic disorders. DNA-based tests can detect the carrier status of Tay-Sachs disease, Canavan disease, Niemann-Pick disease, Gaucher disease, Familial Dysautonomia, and Bloom syndrome. NAT can be used to detect mutations associated with hereditary cancer syndromes, such as gynecologic and colorectal cancers.

Molecular diagnostics are becoming more prevalent in everyday clinical practice. A gastrointestinal pathogen panel, which consists of multiple individual nucleic acid tests for ova and parasites, can provide faster results than conventional stool cultures. Several studies have shown that this method may lead to quicker treatment and a shift away from empirical antibiotics toward targeted therapies.

NAT can be used to identify specific tumor markers that are predictive of response to chemotherapy or resistance to treatment in patients with cancer. These techniques can improve treatment plans and allow for early detection of residual disease in patients with cancer. Molecular markers can even predict survival in patients with cancer, especially those with advanced cancers. Ultimately, these advances in laboratory medicine will contribute to the transformation of healthcare into personalized and predictive medicine.

Abbott's ID Now COVID-19 2.0 is a quick point-of-care test that has received Emergency Use Authorization by the US FDA in May 2022. This test is done on the company's ID Now technology, and it uses isothermal nucleic acid amplification for detecting infectious illnesses.