Simultaneous Detection of Key Bacterial Pathogens Related to Pneumonia and Meningitis Using Multiplex PCR Coupled With Mass Spectrometry

Zhang, Chi; Xiu, Leshan; Xiao, Yan; Xie, Zhengde; Ren, Lili; Peng, Junping

The composition of the airway microbiota is driven by different ecological factors and is highly heterogeneous (Huffnagle et al., 2017) . Some commensal bacteria such as Streptococcus mitis, Streptococcus oralis, and Haemophilus haemolyticus are closely related to pathogenic bacteria, which complicates accurate identification in certain individuals. Because of resource constraints, isolates of commensal bacteria were not included in the validation stage. The increase in detection with the BP-MS method relative for that with real-time PCR and nested PCR may be the results of cross-reactions with related species. Although we chose species-specific genes as targets to avoid cross-reactions, this possibility cannot be ruled out.