Biosensors and Point‐of‐Care Devices for Bacterial Detection: Rapid Diagnostics Informing Antibiotic Therapy

Abstract

With an exponential rise in antimicrobial resistance and stagnant antibiotic development pipeline, there is, more than ever, a crucial need to optimize current infection therapy approaches. One of the most important stages in this process requires rapid and effective identification of pathogenic bacteria responsible for diseases. Current gold standard techniques of bacterial detection include culture methods, polymerase chain reactions, and immunoassays. However, their use is fraught with downsides with high turnaround time and low accuracy being the most prominent. This imposes great limitations on their eventual application as point-of-care devices. Over time, innovative detection techniques have been proposed and developed to curb these drawbacks. In this review, a systematic summary of a range of biosensing platforms is provided with a strong focus on technologies conferring high detection sensitivity and specificity. A thorough analysis is performed and the benefits and drawbacks of each type of biosensor are highlighted, the factors influencing their potential as point-of-care devices are discussed, and the authors' insights for their translation from proof-of-concept systems into commercial medical devices are provided.

On-Demand Changeable Theranostic Hydrogels and Visual Imaging-Guided Antibacterial Photodynamic Therapy to Promote Wound Healing

“…Pathogen detection involved swabbing wounds and testing the swabs in a microbiology laboratory, which was associated with complex experimental procedures and significant waiting time. The possible persistent infection would miss the optimal treatment time, delay wound healing, and result in serious tissue damage . In the current study, the bacterial sensing and killing capacities were integrated into PLU@PTc hydrogels.…”

“…The possible persistent infection would miss the optimal treatment time, delay wound healing, and result in serious tissue damage. 48 In the current study, the bacterial sensing and killing capacities were integrated into PLU@PTc hydrogels. Their real-time color changes under 410 nm illumination would guide the in situ antibacterial PDT under 660 nm illumination followed by removal of bacterial debris from wound beds after illumination at 808 nm.…”

Differentiation and classification of bacterial endotoxins based on surface enhanced Raman scattering and advanced machine learning

“…46 and 47, the linear combination hypothesis may not be reasonable from the SERS mechanism point of view. There are many underlying assumptions for this hypothesis: (1) the SERS spectrum of each analyte does not change; (2) there is no interaction between the two (or more) target analytes; (3) each analyte has the same enhancement; and (4) the adsorption mechanism of each analyte to the SERS hot spots does not change. Unfortunately, our results show that some of the above assumptions do not hold.…”

“…Other methods identify bacterial infections indirectly by detecting bacterial biomarkers namely endotoxins, pigments, metabolites, and small molecules, such as pyocyanin and pyoverdine. 1,2 Among different bacterial biomarkers, an endotoxin is unique. A Gram-negative bacterium outer membrane contains a glycolipid or an endotoxin known as a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) that is shed during infection or bacterial lysis.…”

Persistent Luminescence‐Based Theranostics for Real‐Time Monitoring and Simultaneously Launching Photodynamic Therapy of Bacterial Infections

“…The persistent bacterial infection would miss the optimal time for treatment with delayed wound healing and could result in serious tissue damage. [5] In recent years, researchers have attempted to make non-invasive, real-time, and direct visual assessments of bacterial infections in tissues due to the obvious deficiencies of traditional detection methods. Optical imaging (e.g., fluorescence and bioluminescence imaging) has received more attention in providing physiological and biochemical details of cells, tissues, and organs, with its advantages of non-ionizing radiation, high sensitivity, and low cost.…”