RAPID CHEMILUMINESCENT SCREEN TEST FOR MICROORGANISMS

CULTURE OF URINE IS THE USUAL METHOD FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF BACTERIURIA IN CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY LABORATORIES. ABOUT 65 MILLION URINE SPECIMENS ARE TESTED BY THIS METHOD EVERY YEAR IN THE U.S. EACH SPECIMEN IS PLATED ON TWO MEDIA IN ORDER TO DETECT IMPORTANT GRAM POSITIVE AND GRAM NEGATIVE RESULTS. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A RAPID SCREEN TEST THAT WILL IDENTIFY INFECTED AND UNINFECTED URINE. THE COST FOR DIAGNOSIS OF BACTERIURIA CAN THEN BE REDUCED BECAUSE ONLY INFECTED URINE WILL BE CULTURED FOR ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE BACTERIA. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS HAVE SHOWN THAT ENERGY FROM NORMAL CELL METABOLISM CAN BE DIVERTED INTO CHEMILUMINESCENT EMITTED LIGHT WHICH CAN BE RELATED TO THE PRESENCE OF MICROORGANISMS. THE RESEARCH PLAN IS TO INVESTIGATE THE MECHANISM OF THE CHEMILUMINESCENT PROBES AND WILL USE REDOX ACTIVE AGENTS, SUCH AS PARAQUAT, TO TRANSFER REDUCING EQUIVALENTS FROM ENZYMES AND COFACTORS TO OXYGEN AND THE CHEMILUMINESCENT PROBES. AN IMPORTANT GOAL WILL BE TO ACHIEVE ASSAY PERFORMANCE THAT WILL ALLOW THE METHOD TO BE APPLIED TO THE DIAGNOSIS OF BACTERIURIA.