A new test for tuberculosis (TB) could dramatically improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis for one of the world’s deadliest diseases, enabling health care providers to report results to patients within minutes, according to a study published this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
Jeffrey Cirillo, Ph.D., professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, in collaboration with GBDbio, a Texas A&M spinoff company, and investigators at Stanford University, have identified a new chemical compound to spot the bacteria that cause TB with a level of sensitivity that currently takes months to produce; and results of the first human clinical trial data are promising. Findings show the test can determine that a patient has tuberculosis with 86 percent sensitivity and 73 percent specificity. Smear microscopy, the most widely used test in the world, has a significantly lower ability to detect TB, ranging between 50 to 60 percent sensitivity.
Although preventable, TB claims three lives every minute, making it the second leading cause of mortality from an infectious disease in the world. Spread through the air when an individual with active TB infection coughs or sneezes, reports show that if left untreated, a person with active TB infects an average of 10 to 15 people each year, leaving a great need for faster, more reliable testing.
Cirillo’s latest breakthrough perfects the technology behind the test. Using a fluorescent substrate, the device targets BlaC – an enzyme produced by the bacteria that cause TB – as an indicator of the bacteria’s presence. Until now, it has not been possible to target a specific TB enzyme for diagnosis.
Read more . . .
The Latest on: Tuberculosis
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Tuberculosis” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Tuberculosis
- Experts develop immune-enhancing therapies to target tuberculosison April 26, 2024 at 3:10 pm
Experts are working on novel immune-enhancing therapies called host-directed therapies to use the body's own immune system to target tuberculosis, with hopes that they could tackle even the ...
- Revvity unveils a new era of automated tuberculosis testingon April 26, 2024 at 8:38 am
Revvity, Inc. (NYSE: RVTY) today announced the launch of the Auto-Pure 2400 liquid handler from Allsheng for use with the T-SPOT.TB test. The Auto-Pure 2400 platform is easy to use and designed to ...
- A new hope for tuberculosis?on April 26, 2024 at 6:13 am
If we can say “COVID is still here,” then what of tuberculosis (TB), which has been around since time immemorial and has killed more Filipinos than the coronavirus, even during the ...
- Experts developing immune-enhancing therapies to target tuberculosison April 25, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Some immune-enhancing therapies already exist, and their use could be investigated while other immunomodulatory drugs specific to different sub-groups of TB disease are being developed Experts are ...
- She Died Of Tuberculosis During The New England Vampire Panic, But Her Family Believed She Was Haunting Her Sister, So They Dug Up Her Grave, Removed Her Heart, And Burned It ...on April 25, 2024 at 4:00 pm
At one point in time, Rhode Island was consumed with what we call a vampire panic today. Due to an outbreak of tuberculosis and the freaky symptoms the disease caused, many people believed that the ...
- Drug-resistant tuberculosis responds rapidly to bedaquiline-based second-line therapy, claims studyon April 25, 2024 at 8:31 am
Patients who have drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have a similar microbiological response to bedaquiline-based second-line medications as patients with drug-sensitive TB taking ...
- Excess tuberculosis deaths in the WHO European regionon April 24, 2024 at 5:14 pm
A new report from WHO and the ECDC says that 7000 estimated excess tuberculosis deaths in the WHO European region in 2020–22 were a direct result of the pandemic. Talha Burki reports.
- QIAGEN expands tuberculosis portfolio with new NGS Panel to support real-time surveillance and combat antimicrobial resistanceon April 24, 2024 at 1:05 pm
Launch of QIAseq xHYB Mycobacterium tuberculosis Panel for research use, enabling culture-free whole genome sequencing from complex samples // Panel significantly accelerates TB outbreak tracking and ...
- Study compares tuberculosis infection and disease progression rates in a prospective manneron April 23, 2024 at 6:00 am
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB), is distinct from most germs in its capacity to silently infect individuals for months and even years before waking up and ...
- The path to a better tuberculosis vaccine runs through Montanaon April 20, 2024 at 9:40 am
A team of Montana researchers is playing a key role in the development of a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis.
via Bing News