bacteria detected by chip
This Chip Can Tell If You've Been Poisoned
Quick detection. This 2-cm-wide chip (inset) can quickly test for botulism, a deadly disease caused by theClostridium botulinum bacterium.
When you are dealing with a deadly poison that can be found in food and is a potential terrorist weapon, you want the best detection tools you can get. Now, researchers in France have demonstrated an improved method to detect the most deadly variant of the botulinum neurotoxin, which causes botulism. Their test provides results faster than the standard method and accurately detects even low concentrations of the toxin.
Botulinum neurotoxin—one of the deadliest poisons known to humans—is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. This toxin can be found in improperly canned foods and is considered a potential terrorist weapon due to its ability to kill at very low concentrations if added to food, water, or the air supply. Individuals who become sick from the toxin develop progressive paralysis that is fatal 60% of the time if left untreated. But if a patient receives treatment in time, the likelihood of death falls to less than 5%.
Unfortunately, the current standard blood test for detecting the botulinum toxin in adults is slow—and gruesome. Blood from the patient is injected into mice; if the rodents develop symptoms of botulism and die, the test is positive. But it can take as long as four days to get results from the mouse test, which limits its usefulness in situations where treatment decisions need to be made quickly. What’s more, the patients who have the least amount of time to spare often don’t test positive at all. The botulinum toxin moves out of the blood and into muscle as the disease progresses. As the concentration of the toxin in the blood falls, the mice become less likely to react to it in time—even as the patient becomes sicker and sicker.
Molecular neurobiologist Christian Lévêque of the French biomedical research agency INSERM in Marseille and
Quick detection. This 2-cm-wide chip (inset) can quickly test for botulism, a deadly disease caused by theClostridium botulinum bacterium.
When you are dealing with a deadly poison that can be found in food and is a potential terrorist weapon, you want the best detection tools you can get. Now, researchers in France have demonstrated an improved method to detect the most deadly variant of the botulinum neurotoxin, which causes botulism. Their test provides results faster than the standard method and accurately detects even low concentrations of the toxin.
Botulinum neurotoxin—one of the deadliest poisons known to humans—is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. This toxin can be found in improperly canned foods and is considered a potential terrorist weapon due to its ability to kill at very low concentrations if added to food, water, or the air supply. Individuals who become sick from the toxin develop progressive paralysis that is fatal 60% of the time if left untreated. But if a patient receives treatment in time, the likelihood of death falls to less than 5%.
Unfortunately, the current standard blood test for detecting the botulinum toxin in adults is slow—and gruesome. Blood from the patient is injected into mice; if the rodents develop symptoms of botulism and die, the test is positive. But it can take as long as four days to get results from the mouse test, which limits its usefulness in situations where treatment decisions need to be made quickly. What’s more, the patients who have the least amount of time to spare often don’t test positive at all. The botulinum toxin moves out of the blood and into muscle as the disease progresses. As the concentration of the toxin in the blood falls, the mice become less likely to react to it in time—even as the patient becomes sicker and sicker.
Molecular neurobiologist Christian Lévêque of the French biomedical research agency INSERM in Marseille and