Actiphage is unique as it is able to detect and identify live mycobacteria at a very early stage of infection,...
Rapid detection of mycobacterial disease
Actiphage is unique as it is able to detect and identify live mycobacteria at a very early stage of infection, unlike other tests which rely on an immune response
Actiphage offers benefits over tests that rely on an immune response.
A major problem with many of the current diagnostics is they use the host immune response to diagnose infection. A key feature of mycobacteria is their ability to avoid the host’s immune system, resulting in inconsistent detection of infected individuals.
The alternative, gold-standard, diagnostic is culture, but this is also difficult as M. tuberculosis can take up to 12 weeks to culture.
So, a rapid, sensitive, alternative approach is required to understand, control and eradicate TB.
Actiphage uses a bacteriophage (literally: ‘bacteria eater’), a virus that is specific to a particular bacterium. The phage destroys the host cell, releasing its DNA, which can then be used as a target for detection and identification within hours.
Simple yes/no answer
The Actiphage assay combines phage technology (to detect only living bacteria) with traditional qPCR (which is extremely sensitive and specific for target DNA sequences) to create a new, highly sensitive and specific diagnostic assay that detects only live, disease-causing bacteria.
It provides a simple yes/no answer – removing the confusion caused by current testing methods.
Identifies a range of mycobacterial disease
Actiphage uses PCR primers to identify signature sequences known to be present in the genome of the bacteria. These sequences differ between the strains of the mycobacteria so the Actiphage test can be used to provide a number of mycobacterial tests.
Mycobacterial diseases detected
Actiphage also offers many benefits for diagnosis of human tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis).
In cattle, Actiphage can detect Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), which causes Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) and M. avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP), which causes Johne’s disease.
In addition, it can be used to identify both bTB and Johne’s disease in a range of different species, including sheep, deer and exotic captive species and also avian infections caused by M. avium.
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A clinical trial of Actiphage, a promising new diagnostic for tuberculosis infection, has shown for the first time that live bacteria can be detected in the blood of people with incipient TB infection.
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Bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria, offer the potential of a powerful tool for detecting and treating mycobacterial infections such as tuberculosis (TB), authors of a review in the journal Microorganisms* have reported.
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“PBD Biotech has developed an exciting and potentially disruptive technology that uses bacteriophage to improve the molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis” says Dr Tomas Richardson.
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Albert’s research, ‘Use of 2, 3, 5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) to assay the kinetics of phage and host interactions’, is sponsored by PBD Biotech through the BBSRC CASE initiative, and was co-authored by fellow Nottingham student Philip J. Hill and PBD...
Albert’s research, ‘Use of 2, 3, 5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) to assay the kinetics of phage and host interactions’, is sponsored...
