Highly sensitive detection of gluten-containing cereals in food samples by real-time Loop-mediated isothermal AMPlification (qLAMP) and real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)

The treatment of gluten-related disorders is based on a lifelong, and strict, gluten-free diet. Thus, reliable and sensitive methods are required to detect the presence of gluten contamination. Traditional techniques rely on the detection of these proteins based on specific antibodies, but recent approaches go for an indirect route detecting the DNA that indicates the presence of cereals with gluten content. In the current study two different DNA amplification techniques, real-time PCR (qPCR) and real-time Loop-mediated isothermal AMPlification (qLAMP), were evaluated for their capability to detect and quantify gluten. Different detection strategies, based on these DNA amplification techniques, were tested. Even though good specificity results were obtained with the different approaches, overall qPCR proved more sensitive than qLAMP. This is the first study reporting a qLAMP based-method for the detection of gluten-containing cereals, along with its evaluation in comparison with qPCR.