DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accelr8 Technology Corporation (Amex: AXK) announced study results today that were presented at the joint sessions of the 48th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC, www.icaac.org) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA, www.idsociety.org), October 25-29 in Washington, DC. The purpose of the study was to characterize a rapid test run on Accelr8’s BACcel™ diagnostic system to detect a broad multiple antibiotic resistance mechanism known as “ESBL,” which stands for “extended spectrum beta-lactamase.” This type of resistance includes hundreds of variant enzymes produced by pathogenic bacteria. The enzymes destroy almost all drugs in the beta-lactam antibiotic class, which is the largest single family of antibiotics and contains more than 50 different types. Beta-lactams include penicillins and cephalosporins. They are the most widely prescribed antibiotics and most favored because of their speed, potency, and safety. ESBLs represent one of the most threatening, rapidly spreading, complex forms of drug resistance according to IDSA and the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Organisms that express ESBLs also tend to carry additional resistance mechanisms against other antibiotic families. Therefore ESBLs also serve as markers of multiple drug resistance (MDR) or “superbugs.”
