MELBOURNE, April 17 (Xinhua) -- An Australian-led study has developed a rapid color-changing test that can distinguish between different strains of golden staph, including those likely to be virulent and antibiotic resistant.
The test, created by researchers at Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) with international collaborators, uses gold nanoparticles combined with short DNA molecular binders to create color "fingerprints" unique to each bacterial strain, said a RMIT statement on Thursday.
The fingerprint test allows clinicians to quickly recognize highly virulent or antibiotic-resistant strains, potentially guiding faster treatment decisions, the statement said.
Golden staph is a major human pathogen responsible for over a million infection-related deaths each year, it said.
The technique can be modified to spot different dangerous strains of other pathogens, offering a low-cost alternative to traditional culture or PCR-based tests, said RMIT Professor Rajesh Ramanathan, co-lead author of the study published in the journal Small.
"Speed matters when you're dealing with serious bacterial infections, and today's gold-standard tests take time, specialist infrastructure, or both," said Ramanathan, adding the rapid test offers an early, evidence-informed signal on how aggressive a staph infection might be.
The researchers said the sensor produced comparable strain fingerprints in simulated wound fluid, accurately distinguishing staph strains and showing stronger, faster responses in some cases. ■