A Blood Scan for Sepsis?

Abstract

Each day, we carry up to 6 pounds of microorganisms around inside our bodies. Most of the time, this microbiome is kept in check by our immune system. But age, surgery, or chronic disease can weaken our immune system, giving these microorganisms a chance to gain hold. Under the right (or wrong) conditions, this microbial coup (or bad foreign bugs) can cause sepsis. Each year, sepsis strikes 1 million Americans, and can kill up to half of those patients. That's more than AIDS, prostate cancer, and breast cancer combined. Mortality is reduced when the cause of the infection—the specific species of bacteria or fungus—is quickly identified and targeted medications are given. “For every hour sepsis goes undiagnosed, mortality increases by eight percent,” says scientist Tom Lowery. “Differences in time of identification could impact the mortality of patients.” Yet today's gold standard sepsis tests can take 2–5 days to identify the basis for infection. Enter Lowery and the team at T2 Biosystems, a company that is using patented nanotechnology-based T2 magnetic resonance (T2MR) for the “detection of pathogens, biomarkers, and other abnormalities in a variety of unpurified patient sample types.” Lowery is their chief scientific officer. In September 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the company's first technology: the T2Candida Panel, a test that promises to identify, within hours, fungal infections that can cause sepsis (1). Here, we consider T2Candida and its potential in the laboratory. The T2Candida Panel is a nonoptical, non–culture-based …