UTI-1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Urinary Tract Infection- detection by purine biosensors.
IRAS ID
306472
Contact name
Gareth Ackland
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 1 months, 20 days
Research summary
Research summary
The diagnosis and management of urinary tract infections (UTIs) is an enormous burden to healthcare systems. UTIs account for ~3% of all GP consultations, ~50% of all antibiotic prescriptions and >200,000 emergency hospital admissions each year. The NHS spent £434 million in 2013/14 treating 184,000 patients in unplanned admissions associated with a UTI.3 In hospital, UTI is the most commonly acquired infection (~40% of all hospital infections).
Antibiotic prescribing for clinically suspected, but unproven UTIs, is a major contributor to the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacterial strains. Since the gold-standard of microbiological requires 24–72 hours, antibiotic prescriptions are often based on clinical symptoms and/or urinary dipstick tests for nitrite and leucocyte esterase which are unreliable. Inaccurate diagnostics in UTI promote multi-drug resistant bacterial strains.
There is, therefore, an urgent unmet clinical need for an efficient diagnostic technology that can rapidly and accurately diagnose UTIs and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with urosepsis, especially in paediatric and elderly populations.
Chemicals released by bugs responsible for UTIs offer the opportunity for more accurate and rapid diagnosis. ATP is released by inflammatory cells and bacteria. High levels of ATP have been detected in the urine of patients with acute UTI with a positive urine culture, reflecting largely intracellular levels of ATP in microbial biomass. To that end, ATP levels are used widely in the food, water and sanitation industry as a measure of bacterial contamination. Thus far, the lysis step and rapid biological breakdown of ATP ex-vivo has been the rate limiting step for reliable, accurate measurement. Up until now, the rapid measurement of these analytes has been hampered by a lack of point-of-care technology that can measure metabolites directly in urine. The technology we will explore provides a patient-side point-of-care test which can be administered by individuals at home.Summary of results
This was a lab based study of using anonymised urine samples. No patient identifiable samples involved. This work is part of an ongoing program to detect adenosine metabolites .REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0215
Date of REC Opinion
22 Mar 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion