Microbial keratitis: Pathogen identification using impedance cytometry

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Microbial keratitis: Pathogen identification using real time impedance cytometry.

• IRAS ID

  211072

• Contact name

  Parwez Hossain

• Contact email

  p.n.hossain@soton.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Southampton

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 12 months, days

• Research summary

  Microbial keratitis is a serious infection of the cornea of the eye. The eye becomes painful, red, itchy, and cause blurred vision. It becomes more painful as an ulcer develops. It is a rapidly progressing infection that if untreated can lead to scaring of the cornea, which limits vision, or perforation of the cornea resulting in total loss of function in the eye. With prompt and appropriate antimicrobial treatment these infections can be resolved with improved visual prognosis. The causative pathogen may be bacterial, fungal, viral, amoebic, or parasitic with bacterial being the most common. A misdiagnosis will delay the correct treatment. For infections like keratitis, rapid detection and identification can greatly improve patient outcome.
  Microfluidic impedance cytometry is a developing field that may provide a fast and potentially very cheap alternative for microbial identification. Corneal scrapings are placed onto a glass chip. An electrical current passes through the sample which interacts with intact cell membranes causing them to align themselves along the chip. A laser is then shone through the sample. The resulting interference between the cells and the laser allows the machine to assess the size and characteristics of the cells that have aligned themselves. This allows us to identify and quantify the microbes from the corneal scrapings. Our hypothesis is that microfluidic impedance cytometry can identify and quantify microbial infection in the context of microbial keratitis. This project aims to develop the technology of microfluidic impedance cytometry in rapid identification of pathogens in hopes that it will be used for point of care testing and immediate appropriate treatment. The advantages are that it has the potential to be very cheap, easy to access, and far reaching to all areas of infection.

• REC name

  South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/SC/0540

• Date of REC Opinion

  29 Jun 2017

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion