RAPID INEXPENSIVE ASSAY FOR TB AND OTHER MYCOBACTERIA

由于美国结核病发病率的上升 以及多重耐药菌株的出现， 需要廉价的测试来诊断这种疾病。 标准 PPD结核菌素试验通常在HIV感染者中失败（例如，药物使用） 受试者，可能对营养不良的个体或 之前接种过牛分枝杆菌BCG的患者。 通过生化测试进行鉴定可能需要数周时间， 技术非常昂贵，通常只能识别一个物种。 霉菌毒素的高效液相色谱分析 酸的分枝杆菌提供了廉价的鉴定所有 临床相关种属，但具有以下严重缺点： 需要培养数周。 拟议的研究将 测试使用超临界流体色谱法的可行性 (SFC)加上灵敏的电子捕获探测器 (ECD)用于分枝菌酸的分析。 当由计算机驱动时 自动分析和执行模式的软件 识别比较存储的数据库，系统应该 直接从痰中识别结核病和其他分枝杆菌， 培养。 SFC-ECD系统应接近灵敏度 DNA探针和PCR检测的优点是， 以一小部分鉴定所有临床相关分枝杆菌 DNA技术的成本。

Due to an increasing incidence of tuberculosis in the United States and the appearance of multiple drug resistant strains, a rapid and inexpensive test is needed to diagnose the disease. The standard PPD tuberculin test often fails in HIV infected (eg. drug using) subjects and may be ineffective in malnourished individuals or in those previously vaccinated with Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Identification by biochemical tests may require weeks and DNA techniques are very costly and usually identify a single species. High performance liquid chromatographic analysis of mycolic acids of mycobacteria provides inexpensive identification of all clinically relevant species, but has the serious disadvantage of requiring cultures grown for weeks. The proposed research will test the feasibility of using supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) coupled with the very sensitive electron capture detector (ECD) for analysis of mycolic acids. When driven by computer software which automates analysis and performs pattern recognition comparisons to a stored database, the system should identify TB and other mycobacteria directly from sputum without culturing. The SFC-ECD system should approach the sensitivity of the DNA probes and PCR tests with the advantage of identifying all clinically relevant mycobacteria at a small fraction of the cost of the DNA techniques.