Einstein and Pitt researchers develop new TB test that will dramatically cut diag...(Besides quick diagnosis the test also co...)

Date:3/19/2009

Besides quick diagnosis, the test also could be used to distinguish treatable TB strains from those that are drug resistant (DR-TB) and extensively drug resistant (XDR-TB), which normally takes months. Researchers treated M. tuberculosis with antibiotics at the same time the bacteriophages were introduced; the TB strains that were sensitive to antibiotics died, but the drug-resistant cells survived and continued to glow.

The study, "Fluoromycobacteriophages for Rapid, Specific, and Sensitive Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis," will appear in the March 19, 2009 edition of PLoS ONE.

The group's research was funded as part of a major new research initiative from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). HHMI announced on March 19 that it will partner with University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa to establish an international research center focused on the TB and HIV coepidemics, called KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB-HIV (K-RITH). Dr. Jacobs will direct research into developing rapid and effective TB tests, one of the new institute's primary objectives. His work with Hatfull and postdoctoral fellow Mariana Piuri on the flurophage study was related to that effort.

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Contact: Deirdre Branley dbranley@aecom.yu.edu 718-430-2923 Albert Einstein College of Medicine Source:Eurekalert

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