Rapid Tuberculosis and Mycobacteria Phenotypic Drug Susceptibility Testing

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health threat, causing nearly 1.5 million deaths annually, making it the 13th leading cause of death. While TB is preventable and treatable, multidrug-resistant TB worsens the global health crisis, making diagnosis and treatment more complex. An even greater challenge is heteroresistance, where a subpopulation of bacteria in a patient is resistant to antibiotics. Current diagnostic methods take 6-8 weeks and often fail to detect heteroresistance at clinically relevant levels, increasing the risk of treatment failure. Alarmingly, up to 30% of TB patients display heteroresistant infections, further fueling drug resistance worldwide.
 
Researchers at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have developed a breakthrough diagnostic technology that delivers drug susceptibility results in just 24 hours, while accurately detecting clinically relevant heteroresistance. This cutting-edge system, powered by Large Volume Scattering Imaging (LVSim) and advanced machine learning (ML) algorithms offers a label-free, phenotypic approach, crucial for new TB drugs that lack reliable genetic tests. Validated with first- and second-line anti-TB drugs, rifampin, bedaquiline, and kanamycin, this platform outperforms traditional phenotypic methods in speed and exceeds the specificity of current genotypic methods.
 
Beyond TB, this versatile technology can be adapted for other mycobacterial infections, including nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) such as Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium avium complex, which are notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat due to their complex resistance profiles. By providing fast, precise, and comprehensive drug susceptibility profiles, this LVSim-based platform has the potential to revolutionize TB and NTM treatment, enabling real-time, data-driven clinical decisions and combating the growing global threat of drug-resistant mycobacteria.

Potential Applications

  • Rapid Phenotypic Drug Susceptibility Testing for Tuberculosis and NTM
  • Precision Medicine, Early Detection, and Monitoring of TB and NTM Heteroresistance
  • Drug Development and Antimicrobial Screening

Benefits and Advantages

  • Drastically reduced time to result - drug susceptibility and resistance profiles in just 24 hours
  • Real-time growth and drug susceptibility monitoring - correlates unique growth signature patterns with mycobacteria replication rates and drug responses
  • Detects susceptibility with existing and new drugs - monitors growth patterns and uses machine learning to identify resistance profiles more effectively
  • Ultrasensitive heteroresistance detection – phenotypically detects 1% heteroresistant mycobacterium subpopulations in under 7 generations, far surpassing standard methods
  • Label-free, non-destructive approach – eliminates the need for genetic markers or labels
  • Works for TB and NTMs – Adaptable for rapid drug susceptibility testing for M. tuberculosis, M. abscessus, M. avium complex, and other NTMs
For more information about this opportunity, please see
 
For more information about the inventor(s) and their research, please see

 

Patent Information:
Direct Link:
https://canberra-ip.technologypublisher.com/tech/Rapid_Tuberculosis_and_Mycob acteria_Phenotypic_Drug_Susceptibility_Testing
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For Information, Contact:
Jovan Heusser
Director of Licensing and Business Development
Skysong Innovations
jovan.heusser@skysonginnovations.com