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Speed is important when it comes to detecting antibiotic resistant bacteria in the blood – the sooner these superbugs are found, the sooner doctors can prescribe the correct treatment.
In addition to significantly improving the outlook for patients and limiting the spread of these insects, faster diagnosis also means less time wasted on antibiotics that won’t be effective.
Currently, the fastest superbug diagnosis time is around 24 hours. Now new research has identified a way to complete the entire blood collection and analysis process within an hour.
“This has always been our goal, to do it in an hour,” says Aaron Hawkins, electrical and computer engineer at Brigham Young University in the UK.
“It is quite exciting that we were able to combine all our efforts and reach that benchmark.”
Researchers from all fields of molecular biology, chemistry, integrated optics and chemical processing have put their heads together to work out the new process, which can search for three different superbugs at once.
Through a blood spinning process, the bacteria are isolated from the samples so that their DNA can be analyzed. The researchers used fluorescent molecules designed to specifically bind to segments of bacterial DNA that contain known antibiotic-resistant genes. If these genes were present in the sample, they could be detected by a microchip.
There’s also innovation all along the way: from the way the blood is separated, to the on-chip optical detection method that allows for different types of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to be detected (known as multiplexing).
“Once you’re trying to diagnose the disease, time is running out,” Hawkins says.
“Every hour the disease is not treated, survival decreases by about 7%. You want to know immediately what you are fighting so you can apply the right treatments.”
When every hour is crucial, saving at least 23 is a major step forward in diagnostic efforts. After five years of research, the team is now working with a start-up to distribute the chips, which measure 1 square centimeter (0.4 inch).
Superbugs have evolved more and more to resist the best drugs we can throw at them and are a growing concern for scientists. It is a question of whether they can adapt to our treatments faster than we can adapt the treatments.
The new microchip blood test is a new solution to a problem that has been around for millions of years, and while it doesn’t directly address superbugs, it means they can be detected and attacked much earlier.
“These results point the way towards a rapid, amplification-free multiplex analysis of antibiotic-resistant pathogens,” the researchers write in their published paper.
The research was published in Lab on a Chip.
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