A professor at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, developed a tuberculosis test kit that can be read by the naked eye, MTB Strip, easy to use, showing accurate results, guaranteed by the 2023 Invention Award from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). hope Reduce the spread of TB in Thailand
Tuberculosis – one of the most infectious diseases that continues to challenge the public health system today. Although the World Health Organization aims for the year 2035 (the next 12 years) to be the year to end the global tuberculosis situation. But the outlook for TB remains worrisome.
“Thailand is one of the 14 countries with the highest incidence of tuberculosis. Fortunately, drug-resistant tuberculosis in Thailand Has been removed from the list of countries with the highest incidence of the World Health Organization. Only normal tuberculosis patients remain,” Associate Professor Dr. Female Medical Technologist Panan Ratwongjirakul Lecturer, Department of Blood Banking Medicine and Clinical Microbiology Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, discusses the situation of tuberculosis in Thailand.
Tuberculosis is an airborne disease. Caused by a bacteria called “Microbacteria Tuberculosis” is spread from TB patients to others. through a small drop of sputum That comes from coughing, sneezing or talking, so it’s easy to communicate and spread the infection quickly.
“One of the mechanisms to help end TB disease is to identify TB patients as early as possible. to control and limit the spread of tuberculosis.” Assoc. Discusses the origin of the research project to develop a tuberculosis test kit MTB Strip (Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strip) that is easy to use, convenient, fast and accurate. The important thing is that the cost is not high. To provide a tool to access the local health service system.
“If we can distribute this test kit to small hospitals anywhere like a carpet. This allows us to identify patients within 2 hours and quickly screen positive patients into our treatment regimen. which we believe will definitely help reduce the number of tuberculosis patients in our country,” Assoc. Reiterates the goal of developing innovative MTB Strip.
Advantages and disadvantages of current TB detection methods
Assoc.Prof.Dr.Thon.Panan M.D. Discussing the current TB detection that has different advantages and disadvantages as follows:
- The patient’s sputum is treated with a special dye known as an acid-resistant dye. can be done in a small hospital But the disadvantage is that there must be enough bacteria in the patient’s sputum. to detect infection
- The patient’s sputum was cultured on culture medium. It is the standard way of diagnosing tuberculosis. But this can only be done in some hospitals. Because this method must be done in a room with a high security system. to prevent infection from spreading outside And it took more than a month to know the results. This will result in delayed treatment.
- detection of the genetic material of the bacteria It is the patient’s sputum to extract the genetic material and increase the amount of genetic material. Then the infection is detected by Realtime PCR. The disadvantage of this method is the high cost. And must be done in a laboratory with a certain level of expert personnel only. It can only be done in large hospitals.
from the advantages and limitations of different methods used to detect tuberculosis This led the research team to develop the MTB Strip tuberculosis test kit.
Faster, Easier Tuberculosis Screening with MTB Strip
The MTB Strip Tuberculosis Test Kit consists of 2 main parts: 1. Genetic material excipient: Isothermal amplification solution combined with a specially designed and modified primer; 2. Genetic test strip which are manufactured from industrial factories that have been certified with ISO standards for the production of medical devices
Assoc.Prof.Dr.Thon.Panan M.D. Explains how to use this assay. “Once the patient’s sputum is collected, we apply a specially designed primer to increase the amount of genetic material in the DNA of the bacteria present in the patient’s sputum. then extracted before entering the isothermal amplification process Using a technique called recombinase polymerase amplification, it takes only 20-40 minutes at 37 °C. Completely dipped into augmented genetic material. The result will be displayed on the test strip, reading the positive-negative result, just like the ATK test that we are familiar with.”
The key strength of the MTB Strip TB test kit is its susceptibility to tuberculosis. just a small amount of TB in the sputum The test kit can be found and displayed. In addition, the testing process takes less than an hour. and does not require any special tools
“The results are 96% accurate compared to realtime PCR molecular biology tests and conventional acid-resistant staining methods. because it does not require any scientific equipment,” Assoc.
The operation of the MTB strip assay is based on the principle of genetic material enrichment under constant single temperature. in conjunction with a heating box which in general laboratories already have this type of box Smaller hospitals can also use this technique.
“The MTB Strip tuberculosis test kit we have developed will enable the large number of small and medium-sized hospitals in Thailand. able to screen patients for tuberculosis So that patients receive appropriate and rapid treatment, which will reduce the number of TB patients and the spread of TB.”
Fight tuberculosis, aiming to spread the MTB strip to local areas
The naked-eye tuberculosis test kit, MTB Strip, has been used as a sample model at Umphang Hospital, Tak Province in 2019-2020, with some good results. Never stop inventing and developing methods and innovations to reduce the number of tuberculosis patients in Thailand.
“Even though the MTB Strip works satisfactorily, But we still want to improve the detection sensitivity even more. by increasing the potential of DNA extraction in a simple way to be used as a precursor for testing with the test kit.”
In addition, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thanap. Panan also plans to further develop tuberculosis testing and its side effects by developing a DNA extraction kit to make it easier to use and developing tuberculosis detection kits that can identify drug-resistant tuberculosis on the first screening to adjust treatment guidelines to be more specific
“Right now, we are doing in-depth research on the genetic editing of tuberculosis. They used a new living genetic editing technique called CRISPR Cas-9 Interference to edit certain genes for tuberculosis. Makes bacteria less virulent in causing disease and more sensitive to response to anti-TB drugs And when developing the process to bring the aforementioned CRISPR Cas-9 Interference system into tuberculosis patients It may be used in conjunction with current anti-tuberculosis therapy.”
If the aforementioned research study is successful, it will be a new treatment method for tuberculosis in the future. Confident that it will help reduce the rate of tuberculosis patients in accordance with the World Health Organization target.
Small hospitals interested in this TB test kit can contact: Assoc.Prof.Dr.Thon.Panan M.D. Ratthawongjirakul Innovation Research Unit for Diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Bacteria Department of Blood Banking Medicine and Clinical Microbiology Faculty of Allied Health Sciences Chulalongkorn University E-mail panan.p@chula.ac.th
