Scientists in Wales have potentially uncovered a new way to quickly identify bacterial infections using clues given off by a patient’s so-called immune fingerprint.
Working with chronic kidney disease patients who acquired infections during dialysis, researchers at Cardiff University’s School of Medicine in the UK showed proof-of-concept that a person’s “immune fingerprint” reflected which organism caused their infection.
Because different bacterial infections respond differently to various courses of treatment, this discovery could inform the development of point-of-care tests that would guide treatment of infections. According to the CDC, infections are the second leading cause of death in hemodialysis patients, and it’s important that they’re identified quickly so proper antibiotic treatment can begin as soon as possible.
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Current methods for identifying potential pathogens are based on lab tests that can take days to deliver results.
Nicholas Topley and Dr. Matthias Eberl at Cardiff performed immunological and microbiological analysis on samples from patients with infections and found that culture-negative, Gram-positive and Gram-negative infections left a distinct immune signature.
Eberl explained in a university press release:
“The immune system is capable of rapid, sensitive and specific detection of a broad spectrum of microbes, which has been optimised over millions of years of evolution. A patient’s early immune response is therefore likely to provide a far better insight into the true nature and severity of microbial infections than current tests, which are based on the microbiological identification of the potential pathogen (a concept introduced by Robert Koch more than a century ago).”
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Cardiff says that the group is working with commercial partners on the development of point-of-care tests.
The research was funded by a Baxter Healthcare Renal Discoveries Extramural Grant, the Welsh National Institute for Social Care and Health Research.
