The UNM Clinical and Translational Science Center is performing research into new diagnostic procedures for a bacterium that affects those with cystic fibrosis, called “pseudomonas aeruginosa,” which can lead to a variety of harmful, and sometimes fatal, symptoms, according to the CDC website.
The National Institutes of Health estimates there are 30,000 Americans with cystic fibrosis, and around 12 million carriers of the disease. The disease is genetic, and the NIH estimates there are around 2,500 babies born with cystic fibrosis each year.
Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening genetic disease that causes thick buildup of mucus in the lungs, which leads to difficulty breathing and the trapping of bacteria in the lungs, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Dr. Hengameh Raissy, a research professor for pulmonary pediatrics, and Dr. Graham Timmins, associate professor and COP in pharmaceutical sciences, have developed a new, non-invasive procedure to detect pseudomonas in CF patients’ lungs.
“It’s actually very easy,” Raissy said. “You have a nebulizer solution ... and after that you blow in a bag, and then we measure the amount of CO2 that has been produced by the bacteria in the lungs, and based on that we determine if they have the infection or not.”
Raissy said early on in a CF patient’s childhood, pseudomonas is not easily detectable because sputum, a result of the damage of pseudomonas, isn’t detectable until later in life.
“If we had a technique to measure pseudomonas infection early, then maybe there could be early interventions and maybe you could prevent that permanent colonization,” Timmins said.
Timmins said the presence of pseudomonas is a predictor of future lung deterioration, and permanent acquisition of pseudomonas is a very bad thing. According the CDC, pseudomonas infections can lead to pneumonia and blood infections.
The Journal of Cystic Fibrosis said diagnosing pseudomonas in CF patients is done via cough swabs, which have a lower positive yield compared to other, more invasive treatments.
“There aren’t any really good tests — that’s the whole point,” Timmins said. “Sputum can be OK, but it’s not produced early in the infection, and so there really is no analogous kind of tool.”
Timmins said one of the only ways to detect early pseudomonas infections in CF patients is repeated bronchoalveolar lavage — a technique that involves examining a fluid squirted directly into the lungs.
“You don’t want to do that in young kids,” Timmins said.
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The diagnostic treatment is a pilot study, the first human trials done with the breath analysis devices, according to Raissy. She said the CF patients she has been working with have been cooperative in their participation.
“It has not been challenging at all,” Raissy said. “CF patients are great in participating in research because they want to be part of the cure ... the challenge we had was to get the study up and going.”
Timmins and Raissy said the actual study has been without challenges, but that the bureaucratic path to perform the study was a long process. They first had to go through the FDA and other regulatory processes to obtain the documents to perform the study. After that, the study itself was easy in comparison.
“All that bureaucracy is there to protect the patients,” Timmins said. “It’s not something that’s a bad thing. It’s just, if you want to do this kind of work, you need to understand that there is a big regulatory burden.”
Timmins said the test has applications beyond detecting pseudomonas, including diagnosing tuberculosis.
“It can actually be used for any kind of a lung infection, if the bacteria are urea-producing bacteria,” Raissy said. “We are using it for CF because they do have pseudomonas infections ... (the test) can be for other conditions, and infections like TB.”
Raissy said that the test was performed on CF patients who were already diagnosed with pseudomonas, and that the study is using the test to confirm the presence of pseudomonas in patients.
“This is our mission: to bring the basic science to clinical trial, to bedside, to community,” Raissy said. “That’s a whole transition.”
Fin Martinez is a news reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @FinMartinez.
