Researchers at Uppsala University have developed a new method for very rapidly determining whether infection-causing bacteria are resistant or susceptible to antibiotics. The findings have now been published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Antibiotic resistance is a growing medical problem that threatens human health globally. One important contributory factor in the development of resistance is the incorrect use of antibiotics for treatment. Reliable methods to quickly and easily identify bacterial resistance patterns (Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing, AST) and provide the proper treatment from the start, i.e. right from the doctor’s appointment, are a solution to the problem. This has not been possible because existing antibiotic resistance tests take too long. Now, researchers at Uppsala have, for the first time, developed an antibiotic resistance test that is fast enough to enable a patient to take the right antibiotic home from the health centre straight after the first appointment. The test is primarily intended for urinary tract infections.
The “fASTest” method is based on sensitive optical and analytical techniques developed to study the behaviour of individual bacteria. Monitoring whether individual bacteria grow in the presence of antibiotics (i.e. are resistant) or not (are susceptible) reveals their resistance or susceptibility within a few minutes.
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