New and speedy methods for detecting Candidemia

In class we learned that Candida species can cause disease in humans. They can cause thrush or genitourinary, yeast, infections. In healthy individuals these diseases are easily treated and usually mild. If the Candida is found intravenously or in immunocompromised patients it can become systemic causing various symptoms. In these situations it is imperative that the cause of the systemic infection be diagnosed quickly. Currently because of the difficulty in diagnosing systemic Candida it has a mortality rate of 40 – 50%. This leads to 36 – 45000 deaths in the US each year.  This is a serious risk for many patients and it is important that they are diagnosed as rapidly as possible and Neely et al demonstrates such a rapid detection in T2 Magnetic Resonance Enables Nanoparticle-Mediated Rapid Detection of Candidemia in Whole Blood. In short, the method that Neely developed starts with standard PCR method to selectively amplify DNA that was released from the Candida. From here the amplified DNA is captured by probes that have specific spectra that allows the species to be identified by T2MR, magnetic resonance. This allows for detection at levels, much lower than conventional methods, down to 1 to 3 CFU/ml depending on the species. Though the sample sizes was small if this can be proven to work well it may improve the outcome of patients and lower the mortality rates. There is also the potential that this can be used on diseases caused by organisms other than Candida when time is critical and there are no rapid tests currently.