New Diagnostic Tool (MinION) for Identifying Microorganisms in Foot Wounds of Patients Living With Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis

Diabetic foot wound infections are predominantly polymicrobial. However, 'conventional' microbiological culture does not identify all the bacteria potentially involved in these infections and requires time, which can have a negative impact by delaying treatment and/or the prescription of appropriate antibiotic therapy. Real-time metagenomics analysis using Oxford Nanopore Technologies' MinION technology has demonstrated sufficient power to identify virtually all microbial genomes in a given sample, providing additional information on their antibiotic resistance profile and in silico prediction of genes encoding virulence factors within than 4 hours. Based on these rapid results, a management protocol could be defined specifically for each patient with a view to personalised medicine. The aim is to study the diversity of bacterial and fungal species identified using the MinION method and compare this diversity with the results obtained using conventional methods (routine culture) from bone biopsies taken from DFOM patients.