Fluoromycobacteriophages Can Detect Viable and Determine Phenotypic Rifampicin Resistance in 3-5 Days From Sputum Collection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 40% of tuberculosis (TB) cases are not diagnosed and treated correctly. Even though there are several diagnostic tests available in the market, rapid, easy, inexpensive detection, and drug susceptibility testing (DST) of is still of critical importance specially in low and middle-income countries with high incidence of the disease. In this work, we have developed a microscopy-based methodology using the reporter mycobacteriophage ϕ for detection of and phenotypic determination of rifampicin resistance within just days from sputum sample collection.

Generation of affinity-tagged fluoromycobacteriophages by mixed assembly of phage capsids.

Addition of affinity tags to bacteriophage particles facilitates a variety of applications, including vaccine construction and diagnosis of bacterial infections. Addition of tags to phage capsids is desirable, as modification of the tails can lead to poor adsorption and loss of infectivity. Although tags can readily be included as fusions to head decoration proteins, many phages do not have decoration proteins as virion components.

Evaluation of fluoromycobacteriophages for detecting drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

We tested a new method for detecting drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that uses a TM4 mycobacteriophage phAE87::hsp60-EGFP (EGFP-phage) engineered to contain the gene encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). After promising results in preliminary studies, the EGFP-phage was used to detect isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF), and streptomycin (STR) resistance in 155 strains of M. tuberculosis, and the results were compared to the resazurin microplate technique, with the proportion method serving as the reference standard.

Comparison of sagittal obliquity of the reconstructed anterior cruciate ligament with native anterior cruciate ligament using magnetic resonance imaging.

Purpose: This study was conducted to compare the obliquity of asymptomatic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) grafts with normal controls using sagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Type Of Study: Case control study.

Methods: Sagittal MRIs from 30 patients with a reconstructed ACL graft and from 30 individuals with an intact ACL were reviewed.