| 摘要 |
The present invention relates to a method for enhancing the time of response of an assay for a first bacterium, characterised in that: a) the said first bacterium is exposed to infection by phage particles to which the said first bacterium is permissive; b) the infected bacterium is treated to in-activate exogenous phage particles; c) the treated bacterium is cultivated in the presence of a second bacterium which is permissive to said phage or its replicand and which has a doubling rate greater than the effective doubling rate of the first bacterium; and d) assessing the extent of plaque formation and/or of second bacterium growth in the cultivated second bacterium cells. The method of the invention can be used to assess the presence of first bacterium in a sample, notably where the first bacterium is a slow growing bacterium, especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis, where the method of the invention enables an operator to detect the presence of low amounts of the bacterium in a sample within days instead of the weeks required with conventional bacterial cultivation techniques. The invention can also be used to assess the effect of a drug or other treatment on a bacterium or of a virus. The invention also provides a diagnostic kit for use in the method of the invention.
|
