Enzymic analysis for rapid detection of microbial infection in human body fluids: an overview.

One possible means of rapidly detecting microorganisms in patients with suspected infectious diseases is the direct measurement of microbial enzymes in body fluids. This technique is based on the fact that bacterial, fungal, and viral organisms possess enzymes that are not produced by mammalian cells and are thus not found in uninfected human body fluids. Detection of one of these microbial enzymes in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, or other body fluids would thus be indicative of microbial infection. Potentially useful enzymes for this purpose include bacterial beta-lactamases, fungal adenine deaminases, and viral thymidine kinases. In addition, glycosidases such as neuraminidases and galactosidases can be used as markers for microbial infection, provided that the enzymic activity can be appropriately identified as being of microbial origin. The direct measurement of microbial enzymes offers great potential for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases.