I am going to dedicate this section to discuss the main test done to identify the different Neisseria species, and that most of us had to do during lab this past week.
The BactiCard Neisseria is a chromogenic enzyme substrate system for identifying Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Neisseria meningitidis, Neisseria lactamica, and Moraxella catarrhalis. The identification system consists of a card with four test circles impregnated with chromogenic substrates for indoxyl butyrate esterase (IB) for Moraxella catarrhalis, prolyl aminopeptidase (PRO) for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, gamma-glutamyl aminopeptidase (GLUT) for Neisseria meningitidis, and ss-galactosidase (BGAL) for Neisseria lactamica.
After hydration of the circles with buffer, colonies from growth on selective media or a subculture are applied to the four circles. The IB reaction is read for a blue-green color after 2, then the BGAL reaction is read at 15 min, also for blue-green color change. PRO and GLUT reactions are read at 15 min for a red color after addition of a developer reagent.
The following picture shows positive results on BactiCard Neisseria for M. catarrhalis, N. gonorrhoeae, N. meningitidis, and N. lactamica respectively.
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| Color Atlas of Medical Bacteriology By Luis M. De la Maza |
Thank you for this information. It was interesting to see how accurate this test was in identifying Neisseria spp. I did not know it had such a high sensitivity of almost 100% for all species. I find it interesting how each species has a specific enzyme that it is detectable for. I also think its cool how one little card do all of that.
ReplyDeleteNikki McGalliard
Way to go BactiCard:)....BactiCard is such an easy,quick and almost 100% accurate test that we can perform to identify Neisseria spp. We need more tests like BactiCard in our clinical laboratories. Thanks for such an interesting post.
ReplyDeleteLamya