Bacili Calmete-Gurin(BCG) is the only live attenuated vaccine for preventing tuberculosis. A number of BCG sub-strains have ben used widely in global market for over 40 years. In routine quality control test for lot release, acid-fast staining is bein...
Bacili Calmete-Gurin(BCG) is the only live attenuated vaccine for preventing tuberculosis. A number of BCG sub-strains have ben used widely in global market for over 40 years. In routine quality control test for lot release, acid-fast staining is being used as a identification test for BCG vaccines. However, it is difficult to distinguish sub-strain level of BCG using this classical method, which should be the main objective of identification test. To identify each strain, we developed simple and rapid detecting method for commercial BCG vaccines based on the variation of RD genes (RD1, RD8 and RD16) using multiplex PCR. After developing the PCR condition, we conducted method validation . Detection limit was 0.005ug, 0.5ug and 0.02ug of cells in Tokyo BCG vaccine, Danish BCG vaccine and Moreau BCG vaccine, respectively. Also it was found to be accurate, robust, and reproducible. It is considered that this modified mPCR methods could be used as a routine lot release test for identifying commercial BCG vaccines in sub-strain level.