Open AccessRapid, Culture-Free Detection of Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia
Author(s) -
Elliot Burghardt,
Katie S. Flenker,
Karen C Clark,
Jeff Miguel,
Dilek İnce,
Patricia L. Winokur,
Bradley Ford,
James O McNamara
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157234
Subject(s) - bacteremia , staphylococcus aureus , micrococcal nuclease , medicine , staphylococcal infections , nuclease , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , enzyme , bacteria , gene , biochemistry , genetics , nucleosome , histone , antibiotics
S . aureus bacteremia (SAB) is a common condition with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Current methods used to diagnose SAB take at least a day, and often longer. Patients with suspected bacteremia must therefore be empirically treated, often unnecessarily, while assay results are pending. In this proof-of-concept study, we describe an inexpensive assay that detects SAB via the detection of micrococcal nuclease (an enzyme secreted by S . aureus ) in patient plasma samples in less than three hours. In total, 17 patient plasma samples from culture-confirmed S . aureus bacteremic individuals were tested. 16 of these yielded greater nuclease assay signals than samples from uninfected controls or individuals with non- S . aureus bacteremia. These results suggest that a nuclease-detecting assay may enable the rapid and inexpensive diagnosis of SAB, which is expected to substantially reduce the mortality and morbidity that result from this condition.