Researchers at UC San Francisco have designed a single clinical laboratory test capable analyzing the microbes responsible for serious infections. The rapid test is conducted under 6 hours and uses most body fluid sample to investigate a large range of infectious agents. Fast analysis will yield rapid treatment options for seriously ill patients. Their study is published in Nature Medicine.
"The advance here is that we can detect any infection from any body fluid, without special handling or processing for each distinct body fluid," said study corresponding author Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, a professor in the UCSF Department of Laboratory Medicine and director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center.
The protocol employs powerful "next-generation" DNA-sequencing technology to account for all DNA in a sample, which may be from any species -- human, bacterial, viral, parasitic, or fungal. Clinicians do not need to have a infectious culprit in mind. To identify a match, the new test relies on specially developed analytical software to compare DNA sequences in the sample to massive genomic databases covering all known pathogens. In the new study, researchers compared performance of their new single-protocol "metagenomic" DNA test to laboratory culture-based tests and now-standard PCR-based DNA tests, using two high-powered DNA sequencing technologies to diagnose bacterial or fungal infection. 180 body fluid samples from in and around the lungs, the peritoneal cavity, pus-filled abscesses, the spinal cord, joints, and other sites.