A point of care test for TB antibiotic concentration in blood

TuberculosisTBis one of the topcauses of death worldwideTB treatments include combinations of multiple antibiotics and dosage levels over a long period of timeOften the dose must be adjustedLow antibiotic blood concentrations may cause slow responseprolonged infection or treatment failureand the TB strain may acquire drug resistancetoo high and toxicity may be an issueCurrent technologies for measuring blood antibiotic concentrations are slowexpensiveand require sophisticated instrumentspreventing the use of therapeutic drug monitoring in clinical practiceIn this proposal we describe the development of a point of care quantitative multiplexed lateral flow assay to measure the serum concentrations of key front line tuberculosis antibioticsThe assay will take a fingerstick blood sample and provide a readout of the serum concentration of multiple TB drugs within fifteen minutes at low costThe assay will utilize novel plasmonic particles with ultrahigh optical density as the generator of the visible signal to increase both the sensitivity and the dynamic range of the testThe assay will be first developed to detect and quantify blood concentration of Isoniazid and Rifampinand later extended to Pyrazinamide