In findings published by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial resistance infections (AMR) occur in the U.S every year, with more than 35,000 deaths as a result.

Antimicrobial resistance is when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve and build immunity to antibiotic treatment, making infections harder to treat and putting more people at an increased risk.

AMR is a global crisis that requires a united multisectoral approach; the framework set out in the 2015 Global Action Plan endorsed by the World Health Assembly outlines critical objectives put in place to combat this threat.

Sysmex Astrego is one of the companies leading the fight against AMR through the development of disruptive antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) technologies.

“The company name comes from Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing – AST, and rego – being latin for guide, steer or manage. Our products are designed to guide physicians in the selection of effective antibiotic treatments to improve patient outcomes and make antibiotic stewardship easy.”

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Time and cost-effective diagnosis

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After five years of dedicated product development Astrego is now manufacturing their CE- marked Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing system. Developed for rapid, accurate and personalised antibiotic susceptibility testing the system reduces AMR caused by unnecessary and incorrect prescription.

The companies’ AST system can be used to identify bacterial infections, with susceptibility testing for Urinary tract infections (UTI) patients.

UTI’s are among one of the most common bacterial infections, with approximately 50% of women and 10% of men experiencing symptoms of a UTI in their lifetime.

The AST system can detect the presence of growing bacteria in a patient sample within 10 minutes, if positive, the system will automatically run a susceptibility test and generate results for a personalised treatment in less than 30 minutes.

While UTIs are not considered a serious health condition, in the event they are left untreated the bacteria can spread to the kidneys. This can cause permanent kidney damage, chronic kidney disease and in severe cases the bacteria will enter the bloodstream resulting in sepsis, “a quarter of sepsis cases are originating from urinary tract infections” which can be life threatening due to its severity and rapid growth rate.

“To reduce the mortality and the cost of care it is critical to treat sepsis patients with the right antibiotic as fast as possible…Astrego´s AST system can also be developed to provide AST data from positive blood culture samples within 5-60 minutes after Gram staining. Results are interpreted together with bacterial ID from another source allowing clinicians to rapidly optimise the antibiotic treatment.”

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Sysmex investment

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In December 2019 medical equipment manufacturer Sysmex Corporation invested in Astrego with the aim of commercialising the AST system to ensure its introduction into medical fields around the globe.

The Sysmex Corporation was founded in 1968 as TOA Medical Electronics. Together with their subsidiaries, Sysmex is involved in the development, manufacturing and marketing of laboratory equipment and software.

“Sysmex has made becoming “a solution provider contributing to the advancement of primary care diagnostics” one of its long-term management goals to be achieved by 2025, and the Group is working to realise this goal.”  After Astrego achieved CE-IVD marking for its first product, Sysmex acquired the outstanding shares and Astrego became a wholly owned Sysmex subsidiary.

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AST multisectorial benefits

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The advancement in AST made by Astrego will see a multitude of benefits for medical sectors and patients. Accurate diagnosis with an immediate prescription of optimal antibiotics reduces the risk of severe complications and decreases the chance of side effects caused from overuse of multiple antibiotics strands.

Many antibiotics kill the healthy bacteria that regulate yeast levels, this can result in another infection. Ensuring patients are provided with an accurate treatment plan can mitigate this risk along with a reduced monetary cost.

AST testing will see the lifetime of primary antibiotics extended beyond 20% resistance, ”you stop using an antibiotic when the local resistance is about 20%. But that means you can still use the same antibiotic for 80% of the patients if you know which ones will benefit. And this is where the Astrego technology comes in. You can pinpoint which patients can use the old and inexpensive antibiotics.”

Ultimately the AST system will improve monitoring of global antimicrobial resistance and work to regulate the spread and development worldwide, improving the longevity of existing antibiotic treatments.

“If we don't start using antibiotics in a better way, we will soon end up in a situation where people start dying from minor cuts, small surgery, and even giving birth.”