Accurate Rapid Strep Testing
Burst Diagnostics is developing a first-in-its-class
rapid antigen test for ultrasensitive and accurate
detection of Strep A.
Group A Streptococcus (known commonly as strep throat) infections account for 20-40% of pharyngitis cases in children.
The current rapid antigen detection tests for strep throat lack sensitivity. Without ultrasensitive and accurate rapid strep tests available in the clinic, it has been estimated that as many as 10 million unnecessary antibiotic treatments could be provided to children each year.
Why is this happening?
To determine if an individual has strep throat, doctors currently perform a physical evaluation and score the patient’s symptoms.
For mild and severe symptoms, the treatment protocol is relatively straightforward.
If the symptoms are moderate or not as clear, however, doctors collect two swabs, one for a rapid strep test (RST) and a second for culture.
Even when RSTs come back negative, many physicians initiate an antibiotic treatment while waiting for culture results.
It has been estimated that as many as 70% of these doses are unnecessary.
That’s where Burst comes in.
There is an urgent unmet need for an improved, ultrasensitive RST that could reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics, stemming the increase in antimicrobial resistance and preserving the gut microbiome of children.
Furthermore, if an improved RST could be optimized for ease of use and robustness, as well as sensitivity, it could be performed at home enabling telemedicine protocols and reducing the need for a potentially infected individual to expose frontline healthcare workers.
Burst Diagnostics is developing an ultrasensitive rapid strep test using the chemiluminescent CaDI technology.
References:
Cohen, J. F., Bertille, N., Cohen, R. & Chalumeau, M. Rapid antigen detection test for group A streptococcus in children with pharyngitis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 7, (2016).
Banerjee, S. Rapid tests for the diagnosis of group A streptococcal infection : a review of diagnostic test accuracy, clinical utility, safety, and cost-effectiveness. (2018).
Liu, Y., Zhan, L., Qin, Z., Sackrison, J. & Bischof, J. C. Ultrasensitive and Highly Specific Lateral Flow Assays for Point-of-Care Diagnosis. ACS Nano 15, 3593–3611 (2021).
Hendi, S. bin, Malik, Z. A., Khamis, A. H. & Al-Najjar, F. Y. A. High diagnostic accuracy of automated rapid Strep A test reduces antibiotic prescriptions for children in the United Arab Emirates. BMC Pediatr 21, (2021).Hendi, S. bin, Malik, Z. A., Khamis, A. H. & Al-Najjar, F. Y. A. High diagnostic accuracy of automated rapid Strep A test reduces antibiotic prescriptions for children in the United Arab Emirates. BMC Pediatr 21, (2021).