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Lung probe that detects infections will help cut antibiotic overuse

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To help prevent unnecessary antibiotic use in ICUs, researchers have created a new imaging tool that detects harmful bacteria in the lungs at the bedside in 60 seconds, according to a press release.

Led by the Universities of Edinburgh and Bath, and Heriot-Watt University, the project — known as Proteus — has received more than $2 million from the Wellcome Trust and is expecting an additional $1.2 million from CARB-X, an international initiative created to fight antibiotic resistance, to further develop the technology.

“We need to understand disease in patients better so that we can make better decisions at bedside,” Kev Dhaliwal, PhD, project leader and consultant in respiratory medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said in the release. “The rise of antimicrobial resistance is the biggest challenge in modern medicine and the support and mentorship from CARB-X will accelerate development of Proteus technology to be ready for clinical use faster and more widely than previously possible.”

Although doctors currently rely on X-rays and blood tests for diagnosing serious lung infections, they are slow and imprecise, which leads to the prescribing of potentially unnecessary antibiotics and contributes to the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to drugs. The researchers aim to help ventilated patients with lung infections and patients in intensive care with suspected pneumonia.

Proteus uses chemicals that light up — detected using microscopic fiber-optic tubes that are small enough to be threaded inside the patients’ lungs — when they attach to specific types of bacterial infection. Because this technology can easily reach parts of the lungs existing tools cannot, it could transform the treatment of patients with long-term lung conditions.

“CARB-X is a bold new approach to developing life-saving treatments for antibiotic-resistance infections,” Kevin Outterson, JD, LLM, executive director of CARB-X and professor of law at Boston University, added in the release. “By accelerating promising research into novel drugs, diagnostics and vaccine, it is our hope that we can speed up the delivery of new effective antibacterials, vaccines and rapid diagnostics to patients who need them.” – by Savannah Demko

Disclosures: Dhaliwal is receiving funding from Wellcome Trust and CARB-X for this project. Outterson is the executive director of CARB-X.