The identification of microorganism in clinical sample by MALDI-TOF MS technique and application to the rapid diagnosis of infectious disease

Abstract

  Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry （MALDI-TOF MS） is a new powerful tool to identify the profiles of the ribosome proteins derived from microorganisms. By comparison between the fingerprints of ribosome proteins of microorganism and those of the standard strain library, we can easily identify the species of microorganisms in the clinical sample. This new MS method is more specific and rapid than the conventional method.
  In our laboratory, we have been directly identified microorganism and yeast in a colony on the solid medium from the clinical sample （blood, urine, feces, sputum, etc.） by the MALDI-TOF MS. Moreover, we applied positive blood culture broths instead of a bacterial colony, when we identify microorganism caused with the infectious disease such as bacteremia and sepsis. At this time, we described the outline about the identification of microorganisms by MALDI-TOF MS, and its application to rapid diagnosis of infectious disease.