User login
Credit: Graham Colm
A new test can detect bloodstream infections with “unprecedented” speed and accuracy, according to researchers.
The group developed a test called Integrated Comprehensive Droplet Digital Detection (IC 3D).
And experiments showed that IC 3D can detect bacteria in milliliters of blood with single-cell sensitivity in 1.5 to 4 hours, with no cell culture necessary.
The researchers described this test in Nature Communications.
“We are extremely excited about this technology because it addresses a long-standing unmet medical need in the field,” said study author Weian Zhao, PhD, of the University of California Irvine (UCI).
“As a platform technology, it may have many applications in detecting extremely low-abundance biomarkers in other areas, such as cancers, HIV, and, most notably, Ebola.”
Worldwide, more than 2 million people a year get antibiotic-resistant blood infections, and 23,000 of them die, according to the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. This high mortality rate is due, in part, to the inability to diagnose and treat patients in the early stages.
Recent molecular diagnostic methods can reduce the assay time to hours but may not be sensitive enough to detect bacteria that occur at low concentrations in blood.
The IC 3D technology differs from other diagnostic techniques in that it converts blood samples directly into billions of very small droplets. Fluorescent DNA sensor solution infused into the droplets detects those with bacterial markers, lighting them up with an intense fluorescent signal.
Dr Zhao said that separating the samples into so many small droplets minimizes the interference of other components in blood, making it possible to directly detect target bacteria without the purification typically required in conventional assays.
To identify bacteria-containing droplets among billions of others in a timely fashion, Dr Zhao and his colleagues incorporated a 3-dimensional particle counter developed by UCI biomedical engineer Enrico Gratton, PhD, and his colleagues that tags fluorescent particles within several minutes.
“The IC 3D instrument is designed to read a large volume in each measurement, to speed up diagnosis,” Dr Gratton said. “Importantly, using this technique, we can detect a positive hit with very high confidence.”
The researchers reported that IC 3D provided absolute quantification of stock and clinical isolates of Escherichia coli at a wide range of concentrations, from 1 to 10,000 bacteria per mL, in 1.5 to 4 hours.
A UCI spinoff, Velox Biosystems, is now developing the IC 3D technology. 
Credit: Graham Colm
A new test can detect bloodstream infections with “unprecedented” speed and accuracy, according to researchers.
The group developed a test called Integrated Comprehensive Droplet Digital Detection (IC 3D).
And experiments showed that IC 3D can detect bacteria in milliliters of blood with single-cell sensitivity in 1.5 to 4 hours, with no cell culture necessary.
The researchers described this test in Nature Communications.
“We are extremely excited about this technology because it addresses a long-standing unmet medical need in the field,” said study author Weian Zhao, PhD, of the University of California Irvine (UCI).
“As a platform technology, it may have many applications in detecting extremely low-abundance biomarkers in other areas, such as cancers, HIV, and, most notably, Ebola.”
Worldwide, more than 2 million people a year get antibiotic-resistant blood infections, and 23,000 of them die, according to the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. This high mortality rate is due, in part, to the inability to diagnose and treat patients in the early stages.
Recent molecular diagnostic methods can reduce the assay time to hours but may not be sensitive enough to detect bacteria that occur at low concentrations in blood.
The IC 3D technology differs from other diagnostic techniques in that it converts blood samples directly into billions of very small droplets. Fluorescent DNA sensor solution infused into the droplets detects those with bacterial markers, lighting them up with an intense fluorescent signal.
Dr Zhao said that separating the samples into so many small droplets minimizes the interference of other components in blood, making it possible to directly detect target bacteria without the purification typically required in conventional assays.
To identify bacteria-containing droplets among billions of others in a timely fashion, Dr Zhao and his colleagues incorporated a 3-dimensional particle counter developed by UCI biomedical engineer Enrico Gratton, PhD, and his colleagues that tags fluorescent particles within several minutes.
“The IC 3D instrument is designed to read a large volume in each measurement, to speed up diagnosis,” Dr Gratton said. “Importantly, using this technique, we can detect a positive hit with very high confidence.”
The researchers reported that IC 3D provided absolute quantification of stock and clinical isolates of Escherichia coli at a wide range of concentrations, from 1 to 10,000 bacteria per mL, in 1.5 to 4 hours.
A UCI spinoff, Velox Biosystems, is now developing the IC 3D technology.
Credit: Graham Colm
A new test can detect bloodstream infections with “unprecedented” speed and accuracy, according to researchers.
The group developed a test called Integrated Comprehensive Droplet Digital Detection (IC 3D).
And experiments showed that IC 3D can detect bacteria in milliliters of blood with single-cell sensitivity in 1.5 to 4 hours, with no cell culture necessary.
The researchers described this test in Nature Communications.
“We are extremely excited about this technology because it addresses a long-standing unmet medical need in the field,” said study author Weian Zhao, PhD, of the University of California Irvine (UCI).
“As a platform technology, it may have many applications in detecting extremely low-abundance biomarkers in other areas, such as cancers, HIV, and, most notably, Ebola.”
Worldwide, more than 2 million people a year get antibiotic-resistant blood infections, and 23,000 of them die, according to the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. This high mortality rate is due, in part, to the inability to diagnose and treat patients in the early stages.
Recent molecular diagnostic methods can reduce the assay time to hours but may not be sensitive enough to detect bacteria that occur at low concentrations in blood.
The IC 3D technology differs from other diagnostic techniques in that it converts blood samples directly into billions of very small droplets. Fluorescent DNA sensor solution infused into the droplets detects those with bacterial markers, lighting them up with an intense fluorescent signal.
Dr Zhao said that separating the samples into so many small droplets minimizes the interference of other components in blood, making it possible to directly detect target bacteria without the purification typically required in conventional assays.
To identify bacteria-containing droplets among billions of others in a timely fashion, Dr Zhao and his colleagues incorporated a 3-dimensional particle counter developed by UCI biomedical engineer Enrico Gratton, PhD, and his colleagues that tags fluorescent particles within several minutes.
“The IC 3D instrument is designed to read a large volume in each measurement, to speed up diagnosis,” Dr Gratton said. “Importantly, using this technique, we can detect a positive hit with very high confidence.”
The researchers reported that IC 3D provided absolute quantification of stock and clinical isolates of Escherichia coli at a wide range of concentrations, from 1 to 10,000 bacteria per mL, in 1.5 to 4 hours.
A UCI spinoff, Velox Biosystems, is now developing the IC 3D technology.