SBIR Phase I: Early Growth Metabolic Responses of Mycobacteria

该小型企业创新研究I期项目描述了一种快速简便的分枝杆菌药物敏感性测试方法。该技术方法基于阻抗感测的新实现，以优异的灵敏度和稳定性监测细胞生长。微生物生长的阻抗传感尚未受到光学方法的关注，并且对于重大的技术进步来说已经成熟。记录与不同抗菌化合物的作用相对应的反应，并用于确定生长缓慢的活微生物的药物敏感性以及鉴定多重耐药分枝杆菌。该方法的高灵敏度使得能够在不需要生长培养物的情况下获得诊断结果，与目前使用的方法相比，从样品收集到完成诊断的时间减少了许多周。结核病每年在全世界造成900万人患病和200万人死亡，使其成为世界上主要的传染性死亡原因之一。此外，多重耐药M.结核病使美国和所有其他国家在发生流行病或故意广泛接触时没有准备好进行充分的防御。如果能找到一种既实用又经济的方法来快速测定结核病感染标本的药物敏感性，将对全球控制结核病的传播和有效的政策管理产生巨大的影响.

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project describes a method for the drug susceptibility testing of mycobacteria having speed and simplicity. The technical approach is based on a novel implementation of impedance sensing to monitor cellular growth with exceptional sensitivity and stability. Impedance sensing of microbiological growth has not received the attention of optical methods and is ripe for significant technical advances. The responses corresponding to the effects from different antimicrobial compounds are recorded and used to determine the drug susceptibility of viable slow-growing organisms as well as identify multi-drug resistant mycobacteria. The high sensitivity of the approach enables diagnostic results to be obtained without the need for grown cultures reducing the time from sample collection to complete diagnosis by many weeks compared to currently used methods.The organism M. tuberculosis is responsible for 9 million people becoming ill and 2 million people dying each year worldwide, making it one of the world's leading infectious causes of death. Furthermore, the onset of multi-drug resistant strains of M. tb leaves the United States and all other countries unprepared to mount an adequate defense in the event of an epidemic or intentional widespread exposure. The availability of a practical and affordable method of rapidly determining the drug susceptibility of TB infected specimens would havetremendous impact globally on controlling the spread of tuberculosis and the management ofeffective policies.