Rapid drug susceptibility test of M. tuberculosis using single cell tracking method in agarose matrix

Abstract

In this thesis, I describe a principle and system for rapid drug susceptibility test (DST) of M. tuberculosis (MTB). In the test system, single cell of MTB is immobilized in the agarose matrix and culture media with TB drugs are diffused into the agarose. The response of single cell is observed by microscopy and the images were transformed by image processing program for quantification. In case of common pathogen, antibiotic susceptibility test comparable with standard method was performed in 3 ~ 4 hours. Single cell morphological analysis is developed to handle the heterogeneous responses of bacteria in the various antimicrobial condition and the system derived an AST result satisfying the FDA standard for new AST systems. In the final, DST system for MTB was developed which can determine the DST of MDT in one week by single cell tracking method. Single cell tracking method in agarose matrix is validated as a solution for tackle the global health problem of tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance.