Detection of <i>Treponema pallidum</i> DNA by targeting the <i>tp0574</i> and <i>tp0548</i> genes in genital lesion, oral swab, and anal swab samples from a cohort of Peruvian patients with syphilis

<i>Treponema pallidum</i> DNA amplification may be a useful technique to aid in the diagnosis of syphilis and increase case infection. While specific genes have been used in PCR techniques for this purpose, the <i>tp0574</i> gene has been used as a main target due to its specificity; the best single or combination of gene targets is unknown. Given the <i>tp0548</i> gene is employed for genotyping, only a few studies have evaluated its utility for <i>T. pallidum</i> detection. Here, we have evaluated two gene targets (<i>tp0574</i> and <i>tp0548</i>) for <i>T. pallidum</i> DNA detection in extragenital and lesion samples from persons with syphilis. We found that the implementation of <i>tp0548</i> as a second target improves <i>T. pallidum</i> DNA detection and that tp0548 alone performs better than tp0574 in both oral and lesion samples. However, further research is necessary to explore the implementation of tp0548 target to improve the detection in diverse types of samples.