Researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine have developed a rapid test for tuberculosis that
In the new work, the researchers conducted twotests. In the first of these, researchers tested blood samples from 73 adults and children with suspected tuberculosis and their asymptomatic household contacts using CRISPR technology, obtained in Eswatini, Africa. As a result, the test identified the disease in adults with a sensitivity of 96.4% and a specificity of 94.1%, and in children with a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 95.5%. Sensitivity reflects the accuracy of identifying positive cases, and specificity reflects negative ones.
In the second test, the authors tested153 blood samples from hospitalized children living with HIV in Kenya. The new test identified all 13 confirmed TB cases and nearly 85% of the unconfirmed cases, which were diagnosed based on clinical symptoms alone, with all other tests falsely negative.
Researchers note that tuberculosis is the secondthe most dangerous infectious disease in the world, second only to COVID-19 in mortality. According to WHO, in 2020, about 10 million people became infected with tuberculosis, and the death rate from this disease was about 1.5 million people.
Most TB tests are based onsputum screening - thick mucus from the lungs. But collecting sputum from patients with signs of this disease can be difficult, especially when it comes to children. In addition, in immunocompromised patients, the infection can spread from the lungs to other internal organs. In these extrapulmonary cases, a small amount of bacteria in the sputum gives false negative results in classical tests.
The CRISPR-based test uses a smallblood sample and can provide results within two hours. At the same time, according to the developers, it can be easily adapted to a rapid testing platform that can provide results in 30 minutes without any special equipment.
This analysis could be a game changer inTB diagnosis, as it not only provides accurate diagnostic results, but can also predict the progression of the disease and control treatment. This will help doctors intervene quickly and reduce the risk of death, especially for children living with HIV.
Tony Hu, researcher at Tulane University and co-author of the publication
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