The rise of anti-bacterial resistance has been a considerable concern for healthcare providers around the world in recent years, and finding the right treatment plans for patients with this resistance is both costly and time-consuming.  This is especially challenging in remote conditions where access to the lab conditions required for bacterial identification is impossible.

In a recent paper, a team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), describe a portable diagnostic kit that is both low-cost, and low-energy, to run.

Portable diagnostics

The kit, which is about the size of a shoebox, requires a 9 volt battery to run, with a B-chip (bacteria-detection chip) reader performing the recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA).  The entire process can be done in under an hour.

The chip itself contains a disposable plastic assay cartridge that can assess up to 16 different diseases at any one time.  De-gassed samples are pumped into the inlet, with air then added to physically separate the reactions and prevent cross contamination.

“Making progress toward timely and accurate pathogen identification for an infection is the critical first step in effective patient care, especially in resource-limited environments, enabling proper usage of antibiotics to mitigate the growing emergence of antibiotic-resistance,” the researchers say.

The kit was tested on a panel of bacterial infections known as ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, S. aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter) organisms.  These were chosen because they often prove difficult for antibiotics to tackle.

“Isothermal DNA amplification methods represent an alternative to established techniques, such as real-time PCR, that require sophisticated equipment or complex experimental procedures,” the team say. “RPA reactions are sensitive, specific and rapid and operate at constant low temperature that minimizes power consumption and simplifies heating and power handling.”

The team believe the device could have a wide range of possible applications, from effective chemotherapy to supporting the creation of sanitary conditions in industries such as food processing or manufacturing. The kit could lead to future technology that lowers the cost and increases the breadth of quality control performance.

“This demonstrated what great things can happen when chemists, biologists and bioinformatics teams come together,” they say. “We love to work on complex problems and translate what we do in biodefense to human health. It is a wonderful example of a national lab and academic collaboration.”