IIT Guwahati develops device for fast detection of urinary tract infection

The device, developed by the research team led by associate professor of IITGs department of chemical engineering Dr Partho Sarathi Gooh Pattader, can measure and identify the type of bacteria in a UTI suspected patient in minutes compared to conventional detection, which uses urine culture that requires a few days.

A research team of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) has developed a 3D printed cost-effective, accurate and reliable device for rapid diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI), an IITG release said on Tuesday. The device, developed by the research team led by associate professor of IITG's department of chemical engineering Dr Partho Sarathi Gooh Pattader, can measure and identify the type of bacteria in a UTI suspected patient in minutes compared to conventional detection, which uses urine culture that requires a few days. The estimated cost of manufacturing the device is Rs 608 while testing a single sample will cost Rs 8. It will be useful for rural areas where most UTI cases remain undetected due to lack of adequate testing facilities, the release said. The conventional way to diagnose and detect the specific bacteria is by urine culture, which takes a minimum of two days. Without knowing the specific bacteria responsible for the infection, doctors cannot administer antibiotics to treat the UTI and this delay creates a problem for a patient. ''Early-stage detection of UTI is important to provide timely treatment. The Point-Of-Care Testing (POCT) prototype developed at IIT Guwahati is a photodetector that detects and quantifies a specific UTI-causing bacteria called ‘Klebsiella pneumoniae’ within five minutes from a patient’s urine sample'', Pattader said. The detection of ‘Klebsiella pneumoniae’ is important not only because it is responsible for UTI, but also for pneumonia and soft tissue infection, he said. ''We have used gold nanoparticles with specifically-engineered aptamers. An aptamer is like a 3D puzzle piece that fits only on the surface of a particular bacteria and the gold nanoparticles thus get agglomerated on the surface of the target bacteria giving out a unique signature that can be detected by a UV-Visible Spectrophotometer'', he added. The biosensor prototype detects a change in the intensity of light when the aptamer-gold nanoparticles-bacteria come together and the detection time is fast because the aptamer and bacteria instantly combine, Pattader said. The developed prototype is also generic, i.e. the process is tunable for different types of bacteria and can contribute significantly to primary healthcare, he said. The details of the POCT prototype have been published in reputed peer-reviewed journal ACS Applied BioMaterials and the paper was co-authored by Pattader, Aniruddha Deb, Prof. Tapas K Mandal from IITG and Dr. Swapnil Sinha and Ms. Mousumi Gogoi from Altanostic Lab Private Limited, IITG Research Park. This research was funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.

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