Development of a Novel Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Method for the Rapid Detection of Monkeypox Virus Infections

Abstract

A recent outbreak of monkeypox virus (mpox) has prompted researchers to explore diagnostics as a means of impeding transmission and further spread. Rapid, sensitive, and specific methods are crucial for accurately diagnosing mpox infections. Here, we developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the specific detection of mpox. The primer sets were designed to target regions in and around the N4R gene, and results showed a detection limit of 2 × 100 DNA copies, which is comparable to the gold-standard qPCR method currently used to detect mpox. Particularly, the assay provides results visible to the naked eye within 30 min. This test specifically detects mpox DNA with no cross-reactivity to related DNA viruses including Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Vaccinia virus (VACV), Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), Herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2), Human papillomavirus-16 (HPV-16) and Human papillomavirus-18 (HPV-18). Furthermore, the LAMP assay has been evaluated using clinical samples from laboratory-confirmed mpox patients and found to be consistent with the qPCR results. Our results show that this single-tube LAMP method can contribute to diagnosis of suspected mpox infections in the field and clinic, especially in regions with limited laboratory resources.