Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases worldwide, with an estimated 9 million cases of active TB each year and 2 million deaths (WHO Report 2009). The accurate diagnosis of TB relies on either complex and lengthy microbiologic techniques or costly nucleic acid testing, neither of which are available in much of the developing world. The development of a rapid, affordable, and noninvasive point-of-care bioassay is therefore critical for TB screening and therapeutic monitoring in resource-poor settings.  In the majority of endemic settings, diagnosis of TB is still based on microscopic visualization of bacilli and/or isolation of live bacteria in solid or liquid culture. These methods have served the world for over 100 years, but they suffer from low sensitivity, slow turnaround time, and the requirement of an equipped laboratory and trained technologists.

Metabolomx has developed, tested, and deployed a breath analysis instrument that uses the CSA technology to perform a rapid, inexpensive, and completely non-invasive diagnosis based on the molecular fingerprint of the disease signature in exhaled breath. Breath analysis with the Metabolomx technology is particularly well suited to the needs and constraints of the developing world. The advantages include:

• Delivers rapid results – no lab or trained technologists are needed, results are delivered with a simple user experience and can be implemented in a portable device.

• Fast to administer – it only takes minutes to administer to provide high patient throughput.

• Non-invasive – infants and elderly, strong and weak, all can provide a breath sample.

• Rugged and reliable – works over a broad temperature range, is insensitive to humidity and requires no special reagents.

• Low cost – the breath analysis instrument and the consumables are inexpensive compared to other diagnostics that need lab processing.

The widespread use of rapid, non-invasive, and inexpensive breath diagnosis promises a sea-change in the TB diagnosis process worldwide.