(Health Korea News / Lee Chang-yong) A path has opened that can drastically improve the prognosis of sepsis, a fatal disease that requires treatment at any moment. The joint research team of Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul National University introduced this antimicrobial susceptibility testing technology in the world’s top academic journal ‘Nature (IF; 50.5)’ on the 24th. Using this technology, tests that take 2-3 days can be completed in half a day, which is expected to enable rapid sepsis treatment.
Seoul National University Hospital Professors Park Wan-beom (Department of Infectious Disease), Kim Taek-soo (Department of Laboratory Medicine), and Kim In-ho (Department of Hematology and Oncology) and Seoul National University Professor Kwon Seong-hun (Department of Electrical Engineering) announced on the 25th the results of a clinical trial showing that the ‘Ultra-rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (uRAST)’ technology developed through joint research with QuantaMatrix shortened the testing time by an average of 48 hours compared to existing methods.
Sepsis is a disease that causes an inflammatory response throughout the body due to infection by pathogens. The mortality rate increases rapidly by about 9% every hour, and 2 to 5 out of 10 people die. For treatment, the optimal antibiotics must be prescribed quickly, and for this, a long-term antibiotic susceptibility test must be performed.
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing requires first securing a sufficient number of pathogens through ‘pre-culture (blood culture + pure culture)’ for 36 to 48 hours. Next, ‘pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing’ for 24 to 36 hours is performed to identify the type of pathogen and find an effective antimicrobial agent. ‘Blood culture’, the initial stage of pre-culture, can take from a minimum of 1 day to a maximum of 7 days depending on the growth rate of the pathogen, so shortening this stage was an important technical challenge for improving the prognosis of sepsis.
The uRAST developed by the research team is the world’s first ‘ultra-fast antimicrobial susceptibility test’ technology that directly separates pathogens from blood by administering synthetic nanoparticles instead of omitting the blood culture step. These synthetic nanoparticles are coated with innate immune substances, so they can recognize the common molecular structures of pathogens and attach to a wide range of pathogens. Afterwards, by filtering out only these nanoparticles using a magnet, most of the pathogens in the blood can be obtained within 60 minutes.
A rapid 6-hour incubation then ensures sufficient quantities of pathogens for susceptibility testing, shortening the pre-incubation time of at least 36 hours and enabling rapid follow-up testing.
Additionally, the research team introduced QuantaMatrix’s rapid pathogen identification (QmapID) and rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (dRAST) in the pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing process conducted after culture, shortening the existing time required from a minimum of 24 hours to 6 hours.
As a result of conducting a clinical trial on 190 patients suspected of sepsis infection, uRAST completed all tests ‘within 13 hours’ with only 10mL of whole blood. This is a significant improvement in the test time compared to existing equipment, shortening it by an average of about 48 hours. The research team emphasized that “uRAST is the fastest antimicrobial susceptibility testing technology proven worldwide to date.”
Compared with the standard test method, uRAST was able to identify the bacteria with 100% agreement at the pathogen identification stage. The CA (Categorical Agreement) of the susceptibility test was 94.9%, which met the FDA standard. This means that uRAST is not only fast, but also has a high level of accuracy similar to the standard method.
Professor Park emphasized, “Since the antimicrobial susceptibility test takes a long time, unfortunately, many patients die because they are unable to receive the optimal antibiotics at the right time.” He continued, “uRAST, which enables ultra-fast antimicrobial susceptibility testing, will play an important role in increasing patient survival rates and further innovating sepsis treatment.”
Professor Kim Taek-soo said, “uRAST technology, which integrates all necessary diagnostic testing processes within a short period of time after blood collection, is a groundbreaking advancement in the diagnosis of sepsis.” He added, “We expect that uRAST will be utilized as a new medical technology that can quickly identify the type of pathogen and find effective antibiotics, thereby improving the prognosis of sepsis patients.”
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