In order to be effective, antibiotics must be administered in the correct doses and in accordance with the patient’s physiological state and this can vary considerably from one moment to another, particularly in the case of patients undergoing intensive care. Four French-speaking Belgian universities have been jointly working on a method of rapid antibiotic dosing carried out at the patient’s bedside. This dosing method is about to be tested in the context of the European MON4STRAT project, coordinated by the University of Liege. The beneficial effects of this treatment method will be measured based on three criteria: an increase in cure rates, a reduction in the treatment time necessary for the antibiotics to cure the infection and a reduction in the resistance of the bacteria causing the infection.

Some patients feel safe while others get a shiver down their spine at the very thought of going into hospital. Hospitals are places where emotions run high and can be a source of joy, hope, fear and sadness. Hospitals have many advantages and make it possible to treat people who cannot be treated at home or in their GP’s surgery. Their main disadvantage is that there are many sick people in close proximity to each other and there is therefore a higher risk of exposure to harmful bacteria. Despite the existence and application of well-studied hygiene rules, it is impossible to completely prevent the movement of certain bacteria or viruses in hospitals. The growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics does not help matters. Infections contracted during hospitalization are called nonsocomial illnesses. More precisely, an illness is considered as nonsocomial if it is absent during the admission of the patient who then develops it at least 48 hours after being hospitalized (this timescale is increased to one year in the case of infection of surgical scars or following the fitting of a prosthesis). Various scientific studies estimate that around 5% of short-term patients in hospitals are subject to nonsocomial illnesses.

Measuring the dosing of antibiotics at the patient’s bedside

We are not all created equal when it comes to hospital infection. As is often the case, it is the weakest that run the greatest risk of infection: patients in intensive care, immunocompromised patients or those who are exposed to an invasive procedure such as an intubation, for example. 
Among nonsocomial illnesses, pneumo-respiratory infections are the second most frequent (15%) after urinary infections (30%). “In the case of intubated and ventilated patients who have been admitted for other medical reasons and who contracted pneumonia in the hospital, 40% die following the nonsocomial infection”, explains Professor Bernard Joris of the Center for Protein Engineering of the University of Liège. Professor Joris has specifically concentrated his efforts on improving cure rates for patients in collaboration with researchers from UCL, ULB and the University of Mons. He explains, “We began to work together thanks to a project financed by Wallonia called MedATR. The researchers from UCL, ULB and UMons had developed a biosensor, based on the infrared spectroscopy technique, capable of specifically detecting certain biomolecules and they wanted to apply this technique to the medical area”. So the idea to measure  concentration  of beta-lactam antibiotics (of the penicillin family) in the blood of hospitalized patients was born. Professor Joris continues, “In order to develop a biosensor capable of specifically dosing these antibiotics, the project  needed  the  expertise  in the field of proteins that recognize penicillin.  This was the starting  point for  working together”.