Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Fast Antibacterial Susceptibility Testing by Measuring Electron Transfer Metabolism

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 07 Dec 2020
A recently developed device facilitates bacterial antibiotics susceptibility testing by measuring the effect of these drugs on bacterial electron transfer metabolism.

Since some 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur annually in the United States with more than 35,000 fatalities, fast and simple antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is urgently required to guide effective antibiotic usages and for monitoring of the antimicrobial resistance rate.

Towards this end, investigators at Binghamton University (NY, USA) established a rapid, quantitative, and high-throughput phenotypic AST by measuring electrons transferred from the interiors of microbial cells to external electrodes. Since the transferred electrons are based on microbial metabolic activities and are inversely proportional to the concentration of potential antibiotics, the changes in electrical outputs can be readily used as a signal to efficiently monitor bacterial growth and antibiotic susceptibility.

For this study, the investigators utilized the common Gram-negative pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa together with the first-line antibiotic gentamicin. The novel detector had eight sensors printed on a paper surface. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values generated by the new technique were validated by the gold standard broth microdilution (BMD) method.

Results revealed that the new approach provided quantitative, actionable MIC results within just five hours, as it measured electricity produced by bacterial metabolism instead of the days needed for growth-observation methods.

"To effectively treat the infections, we need to select the right antibiotics with the exact dose for the appropriate duration," said senior author Dr. Seokheun Choi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Binghamton University. "There is a need to develop an antibiotic-susceptibility testing method and offer effective guidelines to treat these infections."

"Although many bacteria are energy-producing, some pathogens do not perform extracellular electron transfer and may not be used directly in our platform. However, various chemical compounds can assist the electron transfer from non-electricity-producing bacteria," said Dr. Choi. "For instance, E. coli cannot transfer electrons from the inside of the cell to the outside, but with the addition of some chemical compounds, they can generate electricity. Now we are working on how to make this technique general to all bacteria cells. We leverage this biochemical event for a new technique to assess the antibiotic effectiveness against bacteria without monitoring the whole bacterial growth. As far as I know, we are the first to demonstrate this technique in a rapid and high-throughput manner by using paper as a substrate."

The new method for determining bacterial antibiotic resistance was published in the November 15, 2020 issue of the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Related Links:
Binghamton University


Gold Member
Fully Automated Cell Density/Viability Analyzer
BioProfile FAST CDV
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Respiratory Bacterial Panel
Real Respiratory Bacterial Panel 2
New
Gold Member
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Test
hCG Quantitative - R012
Read the full article by registering today, it's FREE! It's Free!
Register now for FREE to LabMedica.com and get access to news and events that shape the world of Clinical Laboratory Medicine.
  • Free digital version edition of LabMedica International sent by email on regular basis
  • Free print version of LabMedica International magazine (available only outside USA and Canada).
  • Free and unlimited access to back issues of LabMedica International in digital format
  • Free LabMedica International Newsletter sent every week containing the latest news
  • Free breaking news sent via email
  • Free access to Events Calendar
  • Free access to LinkXpress new product services
  • REGISTRATION IS FREE AND EASY!
Click here to Register








Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The ready-to-use DUB enzyme assay kits accelerate routine DUB activity assays without compromising data quality (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Sensitive and Specific DUB Enzyme Assay Kits Require Minimal Setup Without Substrate Preparation

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are two important physiological processes in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, responsible for protein degradation in cells. Deubiquitinating (DUB) enzymes contain around... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.