Antimicrobial susceptibility assay and kit

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for rapidly determining the susceptibility of a microorganism to an antimicrobial agent comprising the steps: a) contacting a first sample containing the microorganism with a first growth medium so as to form a first mixture, wherein the first growth medium is selected to enable the microorganism to proliferate and / or encourage the microorganism cell cycle to commence proliferation; b) contacting a second sample containing the microorganism with a second growth medium so as to form a second mixture, wherein the second growth medium is substantially the same as the first growth medium but further comprises a first antimicrobial agent which may inhibit or slow the proliferation of the microorganism; c) incubating the first and second mixtures, for 30 minutes or less, under conditions suitable to enable or encourage proliferation of the microorganism; d) passing the first and second mixture, or portion thereof, through a flow cytometer in order to assess one or more biochemical and / or biophysical parameters of the microorganisms in both mixtures; and e) comparing the parameters of the microorganisms in the first mixture with that of the second mixture, after incubation, in order to detect whether the first antimicrobial agent inhibits or slows the proliferation of the microorganism so as to determine the susceptibility of a microorganism to said agent. The method is particularly suited for identifying the which antimicrobial agents would be suitable for the treatment of microbial infections, such as Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs). In the corresponding kit an enriched growth medium, one or more antimicrobial agents and a carbocyanine dye are present.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a rapid test method for detecting susceptibility to antimicrobial agents in samples from patients with microbial infections. The invention is particularly useful for detecting antimicrobial susceptibility in the urine of patients with urinary tract infection ("UTI"). Background technique [0002] It is well known that there is an existing crisis of antimicrobial resistance (Andersson and Hughes 2010; Baker et al. 2018; Gelband and Laxminarayan 2015; Laxminarayan et al. 2016; Li et al. 2016; Macedo et al. ; Roca et al.2015), part of the reason for this crisis is medication errors. Medication errors come in two forms: (i) use of a potentially effective antibiotic in the setting of a nonbacterial infection; or (ii) use of the wrong (ie, ineffective) antibiotic in the setting of a bacterial infection. The hope is that there will be a very quick way to know that a particular antibiotic is indeed capable of killing the targ...

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Problems solved by technology

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