PR001064 (Project)

Description:Coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, is prevalent in AZ, with more than 12,000 new human infections diagnosed every year. In highly endemic areas, e.g., Phoenix and Tucson, up to 30% of community-acquired pneumonia may be caused by Valley fever, and cases are on the rise. The current diagnostics for Valley fever are severely lacking due to invasiveness (biopsy) and poor sensitivity (serology), strongly contributing to an unacceptable 23-day median time-to-diagnosis. There is a critical need for sensitive and non-invasive diagnostics for identifying Valley fever lung infections. Our long-term goal is to substantially shorten the time-to-diagnosis for Valley fever through the development of sensitive and specific breath-based diagnostics for coccidioidomycosis lung infections. The overall objective of this application is to identify and validate putative volatile biomarkers of Coccidioides infections via metabolomics analyses of in vitro cultures, mouse model lung infections, and lung specimens from humans with Valley fever. At the completion of the proposed study, we expect to have identified and validated a panel of 10-15 volatile biomarkers for the sensitive and specific detection of valley fever in lung specimens.