Rapid detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in people with cystic fibrosis

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Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease that affects around 11,000 people in the UK, and over 160,000 globally. One of the effects of CF is difficulty in clearing lungs of mucus, which causes difficulties in breathing and can also shortens lifespan.A major cause of disability and death amongst people with CF (pwCF) is lung infections because their lungs cannot remove mucus and bacteria effectively. One of the most important bugs, that causes this is _Pseudomonas aeruginosa_ (P.a.). P.a. is present everywhere, but rarely has negative effects on people with healthy lungs. In pwCF, this bacterium can be deadly, and it is the leading cause of decline in lung health, compromising people's quality of life.Most pwCF first have P.a. infecting their lungs at a young age, and once it establishes, it cannot be removed. Over the past decade, CF clinical teams in the UK have built a strategy to try to prevent P.a. taking hold in the lungs in the first place, by administering specific antibiotics in order to prevent the P.a. from establishing itself in the lungs (called "eradication therapy"). However, these antibiotics have side-effects, and they cannot be taken all the time. For eradication therapy to work, clinical teams must be able to identify when P.a. infection has occurred and start treating pwCF with antibiotics as quickly as possible.Unfortunately, the current clinical practise is not ideal, the simplest way to get a sample for P.a. diagnosis is from coughed sputum from deep inside the lungs of pwCF. With new treatments improving CF symptoms, more pwCF are unable to cough sputum which means samples are hard to get hold of. All of this has to be done with a clinical team, meaning a single test requires the pwCF to travel to a care centre and have samples taken by a nurse and then prepared and tested by a technician delaying diagnosis. We are developing a novel test that pwCF can use themselves. It is based on lateral flow test technology, that is the similar to the rapid tests used during the COVID pandemic. This will enable pwCF to have the freedom to test themselves at home for P.a. infection and without needing a sputum sample. This could save the NHS up to £58 million and pwCF up to £1,200 per year reducing disability and increasing their lifespan.