Rapid diagnostic test to detect specific microbial nucleotide sequences

   Recently, there is an urgent need for rapid diagnostic tests for new infectious agents in man and animals. Conventionally, these infectious agents are identified either by culture or by using molecular biology techniques, e.g. PCR. These processes are costly and usually take several hours or even days. We have produced luminol encapsulated biotinylated liposome and used it as a generic signal generator, capable of conjugation to biotinylated biomolecules, such as specific microbial oligonucleotides, antibody and antigen. The system has been used to detect specific oligonucleotide hybridization and specific antigen-antibody interaction, and the results have been published.