Peptide Nucleic Acid Fluorescent In situ Hybridisation (PNA-FISH)

PNA-FISH is one type of in situ hybridisation utilising peptide nucleic acids as hybridisation probes. Peptide nucleic acids exhibit rapid hybridisation kinetics and, when coupled to fluorescent reporter molecules, offer a rapid and sensitive verification of the infectious agent in positive blood cultures. Once a blood culture turns positive, a Gram stain is performed and, based on the results, the appropriate PNA-FISH tests are selected. Identification results are available within just a few hours and can be reported to the attending physician (1).

Figure 1: Schematics of PNA-FISH. Image provided by AdvanDx (Woburn, MA,USA).