COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF TWO VARIATIONS OF QIAGEN EXTRACTION PROCEDURE ON PCR AMPLIFICATION IN LASSA FEVER DIAGNOSIS IN OWO

Abstract

Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever, is an acute and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fever. It is caused by the Lassa virus, which is an enveloped RNA virus from the Arenavirus family of viruses. The purpose of this study was to compare two different methods of Qiagen extraction in respect to their IC values, GPC and L gene Ct Values for Lassa fever diagnosis. Seventy Three (73) samples which were previously analyzed positive for Lassa virus and stored under appropriate storage condition at the Molecular Laboratory, Federal Medical Center, Owo, Ondo state was used for the study. Data obtained were analyzed using Sample T-test and graphical correlation. Sample T-test was used to compare differences in mean and relationship between methods were represented graphically. The study showed that data for GPC-Gene Cycle Threshold between the two methods was not statistically significant (p=0.393). On the other hand, data obtained for IC-1 for G gene, L- Gene Cycle Threshold and IC-2 for L gene was statistically signification (p=0.000). There was a positive correlation between values obtained using method 1 and 2 for the GPC gene (r, 0.686), IC for the GPC gene (r, 0.486) and IC2 for L-gene (r, 0.705) and negative, but weak correlation for the L-gene(r, -0.161). This study has shown that two variations of Qiagen Extraction procedure could be used for Lassa fever diagnosis because it gives comparable yield with PCR amplification.