Mainz, June 19, 2012 – ORGENTEC Diagnostika (www.orgentec.com) 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 were developed specifically for Alegria®, ORGENTEC Diagnostika’s random access analyser. The tests can be used to rapidly, automatically, and economically analyse 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.

Depending on the serotype, Chlamydia trachomatis affects the mucosal epithelial cells of the urogenital and respiratory tracts as well as the conjunctival epithelial cells. Urogential infections with Chlamydia trachomatis (serotypes D-K) are among the most common sexually transmitted diseases worldwide. Both men and women are affected.

In particular in women, untreated chronic infections with Chlamydia of serotypes D-K frequently results in sterility or dangerous tubal pregnancies. Infections with Chlamydia trachomatis are often asymptomatic and stealthy, which means that primary infections are often overlooked. Patients are thus often not diagnosed and treated in a timely fashion.

Chlamydia pneumoniae can trigger pulmonary infections. Prevalence in the general population is high, reaching up to 70 percent. Asymptomatic progression of an infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae is often problematic because a primary infection may not be diagnosed until it has led to chronic conditions like asthma or COPD (COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

ORGENTEC Diagnostika offers many laboratory tests for the fully automated diagnosis of infectious diseases. In addition to the newly introduced assays for the diagnosis of Chlamydia, they include Alegria® test systems for the serological detection of infections with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), measles, mumps, and herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2). A number of additional test systems for the laboratory diagnosis of bacterial and viral infectious diseases are currently in development, some at a very advanced stage.

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® analyser 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.

Based in Mainz, ORGENTEC Diagnostika is a global leader in the development and marketing of test systems for autoimmune diagnostics and serological tests for infectious disease. ORGENTEC has developed numerous highly specific ELISA test systems, immunoblot and immunofluorescence tests, the Alegria® random access analyser, and the rheumachec® rapid test.

ORGENTEC Diagnostika GmbH
Tobias Stolzenberg
Dr. Friederike Hammar
Carl-Zeiss-Straße 49-51
55129 Mainz, Germany
www.orgentec.com
orgentec@orgentec.com

This release was published on openPR.