Revolution of sepsis treatment opens way'ultra-fast antimicrobial susceptibility test'48 hours cut
Jul 25, 2024
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Recently, the antimicrobial susceptibility test technology developed by the Seoul National University Hospital and the Seoul National University joint research team was introduced in the world's best academic journal 'Nature (IF;50.5)'. Using this technology, it is expected that the test, which takes two to three days, can be completed in half a day, enabling rapid sepsis treatment.
Professors Park Wan-beom (Infectious Medicine), Kim Taek-soo (Department of Diagnostic Laboratory Medicine), and Kim In-ho (Department of Hematologic Oncology) and Kwon Sung-hoon (Department of Electrical Engineering) of Seoul National University announced on the 25th that the `ultra-fast antimicrobial susceptibility test (uRAST) technology developed through joint research with Quantum Matrix Co., Ltd. has shortened the test time by 48 hours on average compared to the existing method.
Sepsis is a disease that causes an inflammatory response throughout the body due to infections of pathogens, and the mortality rate increases rapidly by about 9% every hour, resulting in death in 2 to 5 out of 10 people. For treatment, the optimal antimicrobial agent must be prescribed quickly, and for this, there was a problem of having to undergo a long antimicrobial susceptibility test.
For antimicrobial susceptibility testing, a sufficient number of pathogens must first be obtained through 36 to 48 hours of 'preincubation (blood culture + pure culture).' Next, through 24 to 36 hours of 'pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing', we identify the types of pathogens and find effective antimicrobials. In particular, the initial stage of pre-culture, 'blood culture', can take from at least 1 day to up to 7 days depending on the growth rate of the pathogen, so shortening this step was an important technical challenge for improving the sepsis prognosis.
The uRAST developed by the research team is the world's first 'ultra-fast antimicrobial susceptibility test' technology that separates pathogens directly from the blood by administering synthetic nanoparticles instead of skipping the blood culture step. These synthetic nanoparticles are coated with innate immune substances, allowing them to recognize the common molecular structure of pathogens and adhere to a wide range of pathogens. After that, if only these nanoparticles are filtered using magnets, most of the pathogens in the blood can be obtained within 60 minutes.
Then, through rapid culture for 6 hours, it is possible to secure a sufficient amount of pathogens required for the susceptibility test, shortening the pre-culture time that took at least 36 hours and conducting rapid follow-up tests.
In addition, the research team introduced Quanta Matrix's rapid pathogen identification (QmapID) and rapid antibiotic susceptibility test (dRAST) during the post-culture pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility test, reducing the existing time required to at least 6 hours.
A clinical trial of 190 patients suspected of sepsis infection showed that uRAST completed all tests '13 hours' with only 10mL of whole blood, significantly improving the test time compared to conventional equipment, reducing the average by about 48 hours. This is the fastest antimicrobial susceptibility testing technology proven worldwide to date, the research team emphasized.
Compared to the standard test method, uRAST was able to identify bacteria at a level of 100% agreement in the pathogen identification stage, and the categorical agreement (CA) of the susceptibility test was found to be 94.9% meeting FDA criteria. This means that uRAST is not only rapid, but also has a high level of accuracy similar to standard methods.
Professor Park Wan-beom (Infectious Medicine Department of Medicine) said "Unfortunately, patients often die because they do not receive optimal antimicrobial drugs in a timely manner due to the long time required to test antimicrobial susceptibility."URAST, which can be tested for ultra-fast antimicrobial susceptibility, will play an important role in increasing patient survival and bringing about innovation in sepsis treatment."
Prof. Taek-soo Kim (Department of Diagnostic Laboratory Medicine) stated that "uRAST technology, which integrates all necessary diagnostic test processes within a short time after blood collection, is a breakthrough in the diagnosis of sepsis. We hope that uRAST will be used as a new medical technology to quickly identify the types of pathogens and find effective antimicrobial agents to improve the prognosis of sepsis patients."
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bellho@sportschosun.com
