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Rapid detection of non-deletional mutations causing α-thalassemia by multicolor melting curve analysis

  • Qiuying Huang , Xudong Wang , Ning Tang , Chunjiang Zhu , Tizhen Yan , Ping Chen EMAIL logo and Qingge Li EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 22, 2015
Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 54 Issue 3

Abstract

Background:α-Thalassemia, caused by mutations in the α-globin genes, is one of the most common monogenic inherited disorders in the world. However, non-deletional α-thalassemia mutations remain undetected in routine clinical testing due to the lack of a suitable method. In this study, a closed- and single-tube assay for the detection of six common non-deletional α-thalassemia mutations in the HBA2 gene was developed based on multicolor melting curve analysis.

Methods: The assay consisted of one pair of primers specific for the HBA2 gene and four dual-labeled, self-quenched probes targeting six non-deletional α-thalassemia mutations. The sensitivity, reproducibility, and accuracy of the method were validated via 700 genomic DNA samples.

Results: The assay had a reproducibility of 100%, could detect gDNA of different genotype as low as 1 ng per reaction, and had an overall accuracy of 100% when compared with RDB analysis and Sanger sequencing.

Conclusions: The developed assay is rapid, robust, and cost-effective while maintaining high sensitivity, specificity, and throughput.

Keywords: α-thalassemia; hemoglobin H disease; melting curve analysis; non-deletional mutations; real-time PCR
Corresponding authors: Ping Chen, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Thalassemia Research, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning 530021, P.R. China, E-mail: ; and Hemoglobin Laboratory, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Thalassemia Research, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, P.R. China; and Qingge Li, Engineering Research Center of Molecular Diagnostics, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, P.R. China, E-mail: ; and State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, Engineering Research Centre of Molecular Diagnostics, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, P.R. China
aQiuying Huang and Xudong Wang contributed equally to this work.

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Ineke Rood for critical reading of the manuscript.

Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

Research funding: This research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81101323), Guangxi Key Laboratory Project (Grant No. 12-071-05), Guangxi Scientific Research and Technology Development Project (Grant No. 1298003-4-1), and Liuzhou Scientific Research and Technology Development Projects (Grant No. 2014G020404).

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

Competing interests:The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Supplemental Material:

The online version of this article (DOI: 10.1515/cclm-2015-0173) offers supplementary material, available to authorized users.

Received: 2015-2-19
Accepted: 2015-7-22
Published Online: 2015-8-22
Published in Print: 2016-3-1

©2016 by De Gruyter

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2015-0173
Keywords for this article
α-thalassemia; hemoglobin H disease; melting curve analysis; non-deletional mutations; real-time PCR

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. The way of prostate cancer diagnostics
  4. Review
  5. Statistical methods used in the calculation of geriatric reference intervals: a systematic review
  6. Opinion Paper
  7. The side effects of translational omics: overtesting, overdiagnosis, overtreatment
  8. Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
  9. Rapid detection of non-deletional mutations causing α-thalassemia by multicolor melting curve analysis
  10. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  11. Patient pools and the use of “patient means” are valuable tools in quality control illustrated by a bone-specific alkaline phosphatase assay
  12. Long-term stability of glucose: 96-h study using Terumo Glycaemia tubes
  13. Glucose is stable during prolonged storage in un-centrifuged Greiner tubes with liquid citrate buffer, but not in serum and NaF/KOx tubes
  14. Croatian laboratories have a good knowledge of the proper detection and management of hemolyzed, icteric and lipemic samples
  15. Fetal exposure to ethanol: relationship between ethyl glucuronide in maternal hair during pregnancy and ethyl glucuronide in neonatal meconium
  16. Comparing the effect of isotopically labeled or structural analog internal standards on the performance of a LC-MS/MS method to determine ciclosporin A, everolimus, sirolimus and tacrolimus in whole blood
  17. Relationship between matrix metalloproteinase-9 and oxidative stress in drug-free male schizophrenia: a case control study
  18. Comparison of functional fibrinogen (FF/CFF) and FIBTEM in surgical patients – a retrospective study
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  22. Cancer Diagnostics
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  24. Comparative analysis of prostate cancer specific biomarkers PCA3 and ERG in whole urine, urinary sediments and exosomes
  25. Infectious Diseases
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  27. Evaluating the use of procalcitonin in an asymptomatic, HIV-infected antiretroviral therapy-naïve, South African cohort
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  29. Early prediction of gestational diabetes: a practical model combining clinical and biochemical markers
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