Ramos Meghan T, Chang Gerard, Wilson Clara, Gilbertie Jessica, Krieg James, Parvizi Javad, Chen Antonia F, Otto Cynthia M, Schaer Thomas P
Penn Vet Working Dog Center, Clinical Sciences and Advanced Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Department of Orthopaedics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, United States.
Front Allergy. 2024 Feb 13;5:1275397. doi: 10.3389/falgy.2024.1275397. eCollection 2024.
The study investigated the utilization of odor detection dogs to identify the odor profile of biofilms in pure samples and in biosamples from animals and humans with periprosthetic joint infection (PJI). Biofilms form when bacterial communities aggregate on orthopedic implants leading to recalcitrant infections that are difficult to treat. Identifying PJI biofilm infections is challenging, and traditional microbiological cultures may yield negative results even in the presence of clinical signs.
Dogs were trained on pure biofilms and tested on lacrimal fluid samples from an animal model (rabbits) and human patients with confirmed PJI.
The results demonstrated that dogs achieved a high degree of sensitivity and specificity in detecting the odor profile associated with biofilms in rabbit samples. Preliminary results suggest that dogs can recognize volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human lacrimal fluid samples.
Training odor detection dogs on , may provide an alternative to obtaining clinical samples for training and mitigates biosecurity hazards. The findings hold promise for culture-independent diagnostics, enabling early disease detection, and improved antimicrobial stewardship. In conclusion, this research demonstrates that dogs trained on samples can identify the consistent VOC profile of PJI biofilm infections. The study opens avenues for further investigations into a retained VOC profile of biofilm infection. These advancements could revolutionize infectious disease diagnosis and treatment, leading to better patient outcomes and addressing the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance.
本研究调查了利用气味探测犬来识别纯样本以及患有假体周围关节感染（PJI）的动物和人类生物样本中生物膜的气味特征。当细菌群落聚集在骨科植入物上时会形成生物膜，从而导致难以治疗的顽固性感染。识别PJI生物膜感染具有挑战性，即使存在临床症状，传统的微生物培养也可能产生阴性结果。
让犬只接受纯生物膜的训练，并对来自动物模型（兔子）和确诊患有PJI的人类患者的泪液样本进行测试。
结果表明，犬只在检测与兔子样本中生物膜相关的气味特征方面具有高度的敏感性和特异性。初步结果表明，犬只能够识别人类泪液样本中的挥发性有机化合物（VOC）。
对气味探测犬进行纯样本训练，可能为获取训练用临床样本提供一种替代方法，并减轻生物安全危害。这些发现有望实现非培养诊断，实现疾病早期检测，并改善抗菌药物管理。总之，本研究表明，接受纯样本训练的犬只能够识别PJI生物膜感染一致的VOC特征。该研究为进一步探究生物膜感染的保留VOC特征开辟了道路。这些进展可能会彻底改变传染病的诊断和治疗方式，带来更好的患者预后，并应对抗菌药物耐药性这一全球挑战。
