Plague can kill: Los Alamos scientists found a rapid way to test people and pets

When animals or humans get sick from a flea bite, it is critical to accurately determine if they might have the plague. Rapid, sensitive detection of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, is essential to getting the correct treatment in time. In the journal Pathogens, Los Alamos scientists published a new approach to detect bacteria that could help identify disease with fewer false-negative results.

Read the paper

Why this matters: Antibody molecules used in detection assays often target proteins on the surfaces of pathogens, such as Yersinia pestis. However, because proteins can change shape as organisms evolve or mutate, the detection assays can give false results if the antibodies don’t correctly bind to the sample. 

• Los Alamos scientists created a method for developing antibodies that can recognize membrane fats, or lipids, instead of proteins.
• Lipid molecules remain more constant than proteins because they are standard components of the cellular membranes in all animal cells. 

What they did: The Los Alamos scientists used synthetic molecules called nanodiscs, which are tiny, disc-shaped particles that mimic a cell membrane. Using nanodiscs to “display” a target fat molecule, the team selected antibodies that recognize and bind to fats so they can be used in detection assays. 

• The team also demonstrated that this approach could be used to select antibodies associated with a multitude of pathogens for a variety of uses.

Funding: Los Alamos National Laboratory supported the work through its Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.