Development of a filter to prevent infections with spore-forming bacteria in injecting drug users.
Development of a filter to prevent infections with spore-forming bacteria in injecting drug users.
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DOI：
10.1186/s12954-016-0122-1
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发表时间：
2016-12-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
Bolhuis A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Alhusein N;Scott J;Kasprzyk-Hordern B;Bolhuis A
在海洛因注射器中，曾发生多起由孢子形成细菌引起的疫情，导致炭疽或肉毒中毒等严重感染。这些很可能是由注射受污染的海洛因引起的，我们的目标是开发一种过滤器，能够有效去除这些细菌，并且也可能被注射毒品的人所接受（即快速、简单且不会破坏效果）。设计了原型过滤器并测试了不同的过滤膜，以评估过滤器保留的液体体积、过滤时间和去除细菌孢子的效率。使用高灵敏度分析化学技术测定海洛因活性成分与不同类型膜过滤器的结合。测试的海洛因样品每克含有多达 580 个细菌，其中大多数是芽孢杆菌属，它们是形成孢子的土壤细菌。为了去除这些细菌，设计了一种原型过滤器，以适应注射吸毒者 (PWID) 常用的胰岛素型注射器。通过结合用于去除颗粒的预过滤器和用于去除细菌孢子的 0.22 μm 过滤器，实现了海洛因样品的高效过滤。最合适的膜是聚醚砜（PES）。该膜的过滤时间最短，同时能有效去除细菌芽孢。 PES 膜没有保留或保留极少量的海洛因活性成分。这项研究成功生产了一种原型过滤器，旨在过滤海洛因样品中的细菌孢子。扩大生产规模可以产生一种有效的减少危害的工具，特别是在2009/10和2012年欧洲发生的疫情期间。本文的在线版本（doi:10.1186/s12954-016-0122-1）包含补充材料，可供授权用户使用。
In heroin injectors, there have been a number of outbreaks caused by spore-forming bacteria, causing serious infections such as anthrax or botulism. These are, most likely, caused by injecting contaminated heroin, and our aim was to develop a filter that efficiently removes these bacteria and is also likely to be acceptable for use by people who inject drugs (i.e. quick, simple and not spoil the hit). A prototype filter was designed and different filter membranes were tested to assess the volume of liquid retained, filtration time and efficiency of the filter at removing bacterial spores. Binding of active ingredients of heroin to different types of membrane filters was determined using a highly sensitive analytical chemistry technique. Heroin samples that were tested contained up to 580 bacteria per gramme, with the majority being Bacillus spp., which are spore-forming soil bacteria. To remove these bacteria, a prototype filter was designed to fit insulin-type syringes, which are commonly used by people who inject drugs (PWIDs). Efficient filtration of heroin samples was achieved by combining a prefilter to remove particles and a 0.22 μm filter to remove bacterial spores. The most suitable membrane was polyethersulfone (PES). This membrane had the shortest filtration time while efficiently removing bacterial spores. No or negligible amounts of active ingredients in heroin were retained by the PES membrane. This study successfully produced a prototype filter designed to filter bacterial spores from heroin samples. Scaled up production could produce an effective harm reduction tool, especially during outbreaks such as occurred in Europe in 2009/10 and 2012. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12954-016-0122-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.