Microchip Test Identifies Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

A microchip test quickly and inexpensively identifies dangerous drug resistant bacteria in clinical samples.

The miniaturized microarray chips were developed by studying and identifying the dangerous genes from samples of gut bacteria including the diarrhea-causing Escherichia coli and Salmonella, which causes food poisoning.

In a test of the new chip screening technique, the most common antibiotic resistance gene was identified in 90% of E. coli and 56% of Salmonella bacteria from a random group of animal and human clinical samples. The tests also identified unique and previously unknown combinations of virulence genes, whose significance has not yet been determined.

Physicians and veterinarians will be able to test clinical samples from their patients for the presence of the genes for antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and receive the results within 24 hours instead of having to wait for as much as a week.

"We have developed a test chip which can accurately identify 56 virulence genes in E. coli bacteria and 54 antimicrobial resistance genes covering all the known families of Gram-negative bacteria,” said Dr. Muna Anjum from the UK Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Addlestone (UK) where the new test was developed. "Our chips have already been used very successfully in a survey of microbial resistance in human clinical isolates, foods, farm animals, and also in wild animals, where we were looking at them as possible reservoirs of infection which can transmit disease back into farm animals.”

The microchip technology will allow scientists to search for and identify important genes from other pathogens and bacteria, such as genes that may be commercially important in industrial processes such as food processing, pharmaceutical development and waste handling.

The scientists presented their new test at the Society for General Microbiology's 161st meeting, which took place at the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK), on September 3-6, 2007.


Related Links:
University of Edinburgh
UK Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Addlestone