CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS OF DNA - POTENTIAL UTILITY FOR CLINICAL DIAGNOSES

The last few years have witnessed a tremendous shift in the use of cap illary electrophoresis for clinical applications, particularly with DN A analysis. As a result of the large number of DNA-based clinical assa ys, there is an intense interest in making DNA analysis faster, less e xpensive and more automated. We describe the evaluation of CE-based si ngle-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and dideoxy fingerprintin g (ddF) analysis for the detection of single-point mutations within a Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific amplified DNA fragment. Both were found to be capable of detecting the mutation in the resistant isolate but ddF showed the most promise with respect to specificity and ease of implementation. In addition, initial results with a CE-based sizing method is shown to be competitive and, perhaps, superior to a Souther n blot analysis for the detection of hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection .