Researchers achieve the diagnosis of tuberculosis through the metabolomic profile of a urine sample. This is one of the advances that will be presented in the framework of the XII CIBERES Scientific Conferences, which are held in Madrid (Spain), and in which almost a hundred researchers participate in the area of Respiratory Diseases.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease worldwide, which constitutes a serious public health problem.
The usual methods of diagnosing tuberculosis have been shown to be insufficient for the control of the disease.
The CIBERES researchers have demonstrated the existence of a specific metabolomic profile in patients with tuberculosis, which can also be used during treatment to monitor its effectiveness.
The researchers studied the urinary metabolome using a high-field nuclear magnetic resonance technique. “The results obtained show that there is a specific profile in patients with tuberculosis, significantly different from that found in healthy individuals, in patients with other respiratory infections and patients diagnosed with lung bronchial carcinoma,” concludes the researcher.
One of the advantages of this new method is that the technology requires a very small volume of urine.
On the other hand, thanks to a 2016 FIPSE aid, and the mentoring of the IDEA2-Global program of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the team of researchers has managed to adapt the detection of metabolites to a low-field nuclear magnetic resonance machine. . It is a desktop computer perfectly adaptable to minimally equipped laboratories.
Learn more about health in Pharmamedic.
