New Zealand researchers are about to develop a radical new way of helping doctors detect antibiotic resistance faster that could save patients’ lives and change the way antibiotics are used around the world.
Professor Sarah Hook from the University of Otago, Dunedin, has received a $1,50,000 explorer grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand to create a unique test that doctors could use on a patient at their bedside to quickly find out if a strain of bacteria will be resistant to a particular antibiotic. The real-time test involves treating the patient with a test dose of antibiotic that is delivered in a nanoparticle along with an inactive ‘reporter’. If bacteria are sensitive to an antibiotic, the reporter will become active. Doctors can then detect this activated reporter in a drop of blood taken from the patient using a handheld device similar to what is used for testing glucose levels.
“Our test will enable doctors to determine drug resistance faster and allow them to switch to an effective drug, saving the patient’s life. Another advantage is that the test can be performed University of Otago, Dunedinin the patient at their bedside without the need for expensive technology or laboratory analysis,” says Professor Hook.