Imaging bacterial infections
Nature Materials
July 18, 2011
A family of highly sensitive contrast agents that enable in vivo imaging of bacterial infections in rats is presented in a study published online this week in Nature Materials. Such contrast agents could aid in the early clinical detection of bacterial infections, which could help people to avoid medical complications such as tissue damage or sepsis.
Bacteria are an important cause of various illnesses and sometimes death worldwide. The main challenge in imaging bacterial infections is in developing contrast agents that enter bacteria specifically and quickly.
Niren Murthy and colleagues achieved this by chemically attaching a fluorescent side group, the part of the molecule that creates the imaging contrast, to a specific type of carbohydrates that plays an important role in the metabolism of many bacteria. The researchers found that Escherichia coli and other species rapidly take up these metabolic fluorescent imaging probes, and that infections could be imaged with 100-fold improved sensitivity compared with previous contrast agents.
doi: 10.1038/nmat3074
Research highlights
-
Jul 30
Genetics: ENCODE expands the encyclopaedia of regulatory elementsNature
-
Jul 24
Drug repurposing: Large-scale screen reveals potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugsNature
-
Jul 23
Genomics: Six genomes provide clues to bats’ exceptional adaptationsNature
-
Jul 23
Biotechnology: A safer, rapid assay for studying SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodiesNature Biotechnology
-
Jun 30
Biotechnology: Bioengineered scaffold repairs uterus and supports live births in rabbitsNature Biotechnology
-
Jun 24
Cancer: A 'fasting mimicking' diet may aid chemotherapyNature Communications
