Molecular Diagnostic Chip Targets Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis

A multiplexed molecular diagnostic chip is capable of fast and accurate detection of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) and its mutations, as well as nine other clinically important nontubercular Mycobacteria.

The newly launched Lab-on-Chip platform, marketed by Veredus Laboratories (Singapore) as the VerePLEX biosystem, combines Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) with microfluidics, to integrate multiplexed DNA amplification with microarray detection for rapid, cost-effective, and accurate analysis of biological materials.

The mutations in M. tuberculosis are responsible for its resistance to multiple drugs and for the global spread of Tuberculosis (TB). The rise of multidrug-resistant TB is a global healthcare challenge. Effective treatment of TB involves accurate and fast diagnosis followed by a strict regimen of the appropriate drugs. Shortcomings in this treatment can cause the TB organism to mutate into drug-resistant strains that can become increasingly difficult and expensive to treat.

Conventional methods of accurately identifying TB infections can take up to 8 weeks. In contrast, VereMTB can complete the diagnosis and identify the specific Mycobacterium causing the infection and drug resistance in less than 3 hours from natural samples, avoiding the need for culturing, the most time-consuming part of the traditional method. Additionally due to its compact size, the system can be deployed in a wide range of settings at point-of-need. “Natural samples” refer to direct sputum coughed out by TB patients.

The VereMTB chip is currently undergoing evaluations by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Beijing, China) as part of their ongoing program to assess new technologies for TB diagnostics. According to the 2012 World Health Organization report on TB, India and China combined have almost 40% of the world’s TB cases. Nearly 60% of multidrug resistant cases in 2011 were found in India, China, and the Russian Federation.

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