A proof-of-concept study demonstrates the potential of a noninvasive breath-based device to quickly diagnose lower respiratory tract infections.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Breath-Based Device Shows Diagnostic Potential – A proof-of-concept study revealed that measuring protease activity in human breath could enable the rapid and noninvasive diagnosis of lower respiratory tract infections.
- Elevated Protease Levels Indicate Infection – The device successfully detected elevated levels of human neutrophil elastase in the breath of patients with confirmed lower respiratory tract infections, distinguishing them from healthy individuals.
- Significant for Critical Care Settings – This breath-based diagnostic tool could be especially beneficial for intubated patients in critical care, providing a quicker, less invasive alternative to current diagnostic methods, according to researchers.
A proof-of-concept study promises the speedy diagnosis of lower respiratory tract infections through analysis of human breath.
Lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and bronchiolitis, are currently diagnosed by culturing bacteria from respiratory specimens, but the procedure is invasive, laborious, and time-intensive. Molecular sequencing techniques cannot differentiate between clinical infection and mere colonization, in which bacteria are benignly present in the respiratory tract.
Dapeng Chen, PhD, director of biomedical programs at Zeteo Tech, and colleagues have designed a medical device, BreathBiomics, that measures the protease activity of human neutrophil elastase in human breath with high sensitivity. The over-release of neutrophil proteases is an effect caused by lower respiratory tract infections.
“Using human breath as a noninvasive approach to diagnosing diseases has gained broad attention over the years, but the absence of effective breath collection technologies and practical assays has inherently hindered progress. To fill the gap, we developed an in vitro assay based on breath collection and a sensitive protease-substrate sensor detecting dysregulated protease activity, a hallmark of bacterial infections, for detecting lower respiratory tract infections,” the authors write in the study, published in PNAS Nexus.
The authors tested the system on clinical breath samples from intubated patients as well as a group of healthy volunteers. The platform measured elevated levels of human neutrophil elastase in patients diagnosed with confirmed lower respiratory tract infections.
Findings and Implications
According to the authors, the results suggest that developing a breath-based diagnostic tool for lower respiratory tract infections will be possible, which could be particularly useful in intubated patients within critical care settings.
“Our proof-of-concept study demonstrated the potential for [lower respiratory tract infections] diagnosis using this method and supported developing in vitro diagnostic tools that use human breath as a noninvasive approach for disease detection and diagnosis,” the authors write.
Photo caption: A breath-based noninvasive diagnostic platform for respiratory infections.
Photo credit: Zeteo Tech Inc
