Rapid Legionella Detecting Microchip Developed
Increasing numbers of legionellosis outbreaks within the last years have shown that Legionella are a growing challenge for public health. After Legionella grows and multiplies in a building water system, that contaminated water then has to spread in droplets small enough for people to breathe in.
People can get Legionnaires’ disease when they breathe in small droplets of water in the air that contain the bacteria. Legionnaires’ disease doesn’t spread from person to person. Instead, the bacteria spreads through mist, such as from air-conditioning units for large buildings.
Molecular biological detection methods capable of rapidly identifying viable Legionella are important for the control of engineered water systems. The current gold standard based on culture methods takes up to 10 days to show positive results.
Now, researchers at the Technical University of Munich have now developed a rapid test that achieves the same result in about 35 minutes.
“Unfortunately, this quick test serves only as a first indication and is not suitable for screening the water of technical systems,” says PD Dr. Michael Seidel, head of the research group at the Chair of Analytical Chemistry and Water Chemistry of the Technical University
of Munich. The team has developed a measuring chip in the context of the “LegioTyper” project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.This chip not only detects the dangerous pathogen Legionella pneumophila but also identifies which of the approximately 20 subtypes is present. The foil-based measuring chip uses the microarray analysis platform MCR of the Munich company GWK GmbH. Using 20 different antibodies, the system provides a complete analysis within 34 minutes.
“Compared to previous measurements, the new method not only provides a huge speed advantage,” says Michael Seidel, “but is also so cheap that we can use the chip in one-time applications.“
