ORGENTEC Announces New Fully Automated Chlamydia Diagnostic Tests

ORGENTEC Diagnostika has introduced six new tests for the diagnosis of infectious diseases. The new ELISA tests detect antibodies against Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae. In addition, these test systems make it possible to differentiate between acute, latent, and chronic infection with these widespread bacterial pathogens.

The new tests for the serological diagnosis of Chlamydia have been developed specifically for Alegria^®, ORGENTEC Diagnostika’s random access analyzer. The tests can be used to rapidly, automatically, and economically analyze patient samples for both species of Chlamydia. This system works equally well for individual samples or up to thirty samples in a single instrument run.

Every Alegria^® Test Strip is equipped with all of the reagents needed to test a patient sample. The test kit’s individual barcode contains all of the information required for the analysis and evaluation of the ELISA. No preparation of the sample, test strip, or instrument is required before running the test.

The Anti-Chlamydia trachomatis assays use a recombinant antigen of the major outer membrane protein complex (MOMP) of Chlamydia trachomatis. In addition to the MOMP antigen, these tests use two other recombinant antigens, TARP and CPAF, which also react specifically with antibodies against Chlamydia trachomatis. The sensitivity and specificity of these tests are thus higher than those of conventional ELISAs, which only use the MOMP target antigen. TARP stands for translocated actin-recruiting protein, CPAF for chlamydial protease-like activity factor.

The antigens used for the ORGENTEC Anti-Chlamydia pneumoniae test are elementary bodies and reticulate bodies of Chlamydia pneumoniae. Special processing of the antigen significantly increases the species specificity of these tests relative to the other pathogenic Chlamydia species.

When using the Alegria^® Test Strips, operators are completely free in their selection of samples and can freely combine necessary analyses for autoimmune diagnostics and infectious serology. This flexibility makes the Alegria^® analyzer and the test systems designed for it particularly attractive for laboratories with moderate or low sample throughput or for the acute diagnosis of autoimmune or infectious diseases.