Using urine samples for early Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia diagnosis

• Applicant: Dr. Franziska Schuler
• Subject Area: Clinical Infectiology and Tropical Medicine ; Medical Microbiology and Mycology, Hygiene, Molecular Infection Biology
• Term: from 2023 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 518834831

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is a common disease with a high 90-day mortality rate (28-34 %). Many patients (7.8-39 %) with SAB discharge bacteria via the urine without symptoms of a urinary tract infection (asymptomatic S. aureus bacteriuria). The cultural diagnosis of bloodstream infections, such as SAB, takes 1-2 days. We want to investigate whether the transfer of S. aureus from blood to urine can be used for the development of a rapid diagnostic method (e.g. lateral flow test), as urine is an accessible material. In addition to cultivable S. aureus bacterial strains, we suspect that S. aureus-specific proteins can be detected in the urine of SAB patients. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis, we searched for and characterized S. aureus-specific proteins in the urine proteome of 45 SAB patients (SAB group) and 45 patients with bloodstream infections with bacteria other than S. aureus (NonSAB group). Under the conditions of the study, we were able to detect five S. aureus proteins that were more concentrated in the SAB group than in the NonSAB group.

Publications

• Vortrag auf der 75. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie (DGHM); 18.-20. September 2023: Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) of Staphylococcus aureus in urine from patients with S. aureus bacteremia
  Schuler, Franziska
  
• Molecular detection of Staphylococcus aureus in urine in patients with S. aureus bacteremia: an exploratory study. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, 44(1), 37-43.
  Schuler, Franziska; Kaasch, Achim J. & Schaumburg, Frieder