The scent of Mycobacterium tuberculosis – Part II breath

Received 10 December 2008; received in revised form 27 February 2009; accepted 19 April 2009. published online 01 June 2009.

Summary

Recent figures show that tuberculosis (TB) is advancing and killing more than two million people annually, yet no breakthrough in rapid diagnostics is in sight. Volatile metabolites of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) may provide just that. It is well established that MTB produces nicotinic acid in vitro. We have converted the free acid into methyl nicotinate and detected statistically significant differences in the breath of smear positive patients compared with healthy (smear negative) subjects.

Keywords: Breath, Methyl nicotinate, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, GC/MS-MS, SPME

a Otago University, Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, New Zealand

b Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, Yagaum, Madang, Papua New Guinea

c University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Corresponding author at: Department of Pathology, University of Otago, Christchurch, 2 Riccarton Avenue, P.O. Box 4345, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand. Tel.: +64 3 378 6209; fax: +64 3 364 0525.

PII: S1472-9792(09)00031-6

doi:10.1016/j.tube.2009.04.003

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