In one aspect, the disclosure relates to test strips for detecting and/or monitoring the treatment of a disease in a subject. The test strips are inexpensive and disposable and can be used directly with clinical biological samples from patients including, but not limited to, blood, plasma, saliva, and urine. Also disclosed are methods of using the test strips to quantify antigens produced by a virus or microorganism causing an infectious disease. The methods can be conducted at a point of care for a patient and do not require expensive equipment or extensive operator training. The methods are also rapid to complete and can be used to monitor progress in the treatment of a disease This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

Immobilising isolated mycolic acid antigens of tuberculous mycobacterial origin or a synthetic analogue thereof on a screen-printed electrode by binding of the antigens to a self-assembled monolayer comprising a thiolated hydrophobic substance to produce immobilized mycolic acids antigens in the form of a mycolic acid antigen-containing self-assembled monolayer coating on a surface of the electrode.

The present invention refers to the use of gene sequences or portions thereof characterized in that the same belong to the classes of in vitro and ex vivo induced, repressed or conserved genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis currently infected human macrophages and to corresponding peptides or consensus peptides or proteins for the preparation of specific bio-markers for the diagnosis and prevention of active or latent disease.

A method for detecting, in a blood or tissue sample, dormant or cell wall deficient Mycobacterium species, said method including using a Ziehl Neelsen stain as hereinbefore defined, which includes treating the sample with carbol fuchsin, followed by treating the sample with a decolouriser and with a counter stain.

A method of diagnosing or monitoring Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection, which method comprises detecting the presence of the polypeptide (MAP P900) encoded by the positive strand of IS900, or a fragment thereof, in a sample from a subject, wherein MAP P900, or a fragment thereof, is detected using an antibody, or an antigen-binding fragment thereof, that binds to MAP P900.

Subject of the invention is a composition comprising at least one fragment of the peptide ESAT-6 and at least one fragment of the peptide CFP-10. Preferably, the fragments comprise at least two sets of peptides, a first set comprising at least one peptide of from about 7 to 14 amino acid residues in length and a second set comprising at least one peptide of from 16 amino acid residues or greater. The invention also relates to diagnostic methods using the composition.

The disclosure concerns a method of obtaining information about the disease status of an individual by processing input data using a trained machine learning algorithm model to generate an output representing the information. The disclosure also concerns a related computer program, data processing apparatus, and system, as well as a method for training a machine learning algorithm model to generate information about the disease status of an individual. The information may, for example, relate to the presence, absence or type of M. tuberculosis complex infection in the individual.

A method of determining whether an individual is infected with a mycobacterial disease, the method comprising: (a) providing a system which comprises an antigen; (b) contacting the system with a sample obtained from the individual; and (c) detecting the presence or absence of binding of a biomarker in the sample with the antigen; wherein the antigen is an arabinose ester of a mycolic acid or an analogue thereof.

Provided herein are methods for detecting and identifying disease-specific biomarkers, such as target antigens associated with infection.

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to apparatuses, systems, and methods for detecting biomarkers in biological samples present in assay tests using a control strip and indicator strip, where the control strip includes reagents that form a reactive gas which reacts with the biomarker on the indicator strip, if present. Methods of using the test apparatuses include taking a sending photographs of a used test apparatus to a medical provider to demonstrate adherence to a pharmaceutical treatment regimen.