Johns Hopkins is developing a device for the rapid diagnosis of gonorrhea

A team led by Johns Hopkins University has created an inexpensive portable device and mobile phone app to diagnose gonorrhea in less than 15 minutes and determine if a particular strain responds to front-line antibiotics.

The present invention improves on conventional trials in hospital laboratories and clinics, which usually take up to a week to produce results, during which the patient can unknowingly spread the infection.Team results today Scientific translation medicine..

“Our portable and inexpensive test platform has the potential to change the game in that it enables the diagnosis and rapid treatment of sexually transmitted diseases,” said a professor of mechanical engineering at the core of the Nanobiotechnology Institute. Researcher and team leader Tza-Huei Wang said. At Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. “This improves clinical outcomes because patients can be diagnosed on the fly and treatment can begin immediately. This is a resource that is not always available to all patients in a well-equipped laboratory. Especially valuable in a low-lying environment. “

More than 87 million people worldwide are infected with gonorrhea. Gonorrhea increases resistance to antibiotics and can lead to catastrophic sexually transmitted infections. Experts say that rapid identification and treatment of infected individuals is the only way to prevent a surge in the number of cases and a further increase in antibiotic-resistant strains.

The Wang team’s device, called PROMPT (Portable, High Speed, On-Cartridge, Magnetohydrodynamic Purification and Testing Platform), runs on a simple 5-volt battery and includes a thermoplastic cartridge for about $ 2.

The test is easy. A cotton swab containing the patient’s body fluid is mixed with the solution of magnetic particles in the tube and the droplets of that blend are loaded into the cartridge. The cartridge snaps to the device. The device transfers the magnetized particles to the reagents in the cartridge. The cartridge runs a 40-cycle polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before displaying the results on the mobile phone screen. (PCR testing allows scientists to take small samples of DNA and amplify them for further study, for example, the gold standard for testing COVID-19.)

During tests from sexual health clinics in Baltimore and Kampara, Uganda, PROMPT correctly detected the most common gonorrhea strains in about 97% of the time. It was 100% accurate to determine whether a tested strain of gonorrhea responded to ciprofloxacin, a drug that targets infections resistant to other antibiotics.

“Our tests maintain the same sensitivity and specificity that are currently used in hospital and clinic laboratories, but reduce the associated costs and time,” said Johns of Biomedical Engineering. Alex Trick, a team member who is a Hopkins graduate student, said. “We want these diagnoses to be available to everyone who needs them, when they need them.”

Wang and his team form a college spin-off for regulatory approval, manufacturing, and distribution.

“We expect to be able to deliver these products to those who can really benefit in a couple of years,” he said.

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At Johns Hopkins, other team members include Charlotte Gades, Elizabeth A. Gilliams, Matthew M. Hamil, Yukari Manabe, Johann H. Melendez, and Yushanche of the School of Medicine. Liben Chen, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Whiting School.

The project was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

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