Microfluidics for antibiotic susceptibility testing

Abstract

The rise of antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health.

A 3D-printed microfluidic gradient generator with integrated photonic silicon sensors for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing

“…Moreover, the method is label-free and does not require additional reagents as many microfluidic-assisted phenotypic AST techniques e.g. , resazurin for metabolic analysis, 28,75,76 and it employs a simple and portable optical setup, which can be further miniaturized.…”

“…It is equivalent or inferior in terms of assay time to some microfluidic AST methods relying on sophisticated single-cell analyses. 13,75,76 For example, single-cell imaging of bacteria entrapped in microfluidic channels allowed to differentiate between resistant and susceptible isolates by monitoring their growth at breakpoint antibiotic concentrations within only 30 min. 26 Indeed, working at the single cell level allows to detect changes at high resolution (e.g., in the cell morphology) in short timescales, in contrast to phenotypic tests based on detecting bulk bacterial growth.…”

“…Yet, it is it controversial whether the behavior of single immobilized or confined (in a microchannel) cells is representative of a bacterial population, 76 and as such how many cells should be analyzed. 75 In contrast to the latter methods, the PRISM signal represents the averaged behavior of a large population of cells, colonizing on the chip that are free to move, interact and form a community. Moreover, the method is label-free and does not require additional reagents as many microfluidic-assisted phenotypic AST techniques e.g., resazurin for metabolic analysis, 28,75,76 and it employs a simple and portable optical setup, which can be further miniaturized.…”

Rapid assessment of susceptibility of bacteria and erythrocytes to antimicrobial peptides by single-cell impedance cytometry

“…However, AMP development requires AST methods that are fast (minutes) and able to assess AMP activity and cytotoxicity in presence of both bacterial and eukaryotic cell types, with single-cell sensitivity. Among the microfluidic technologies that are being explored in AST research (Postek et al, 2022; Qin et al, 2021), single-cell impedance cytometry seems particularly suited to meet these requirements (Honrado et al, 2021b).…”

Under-oil open microfluidic systems for rapid phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing

“…In the past decade, we have seen fast growing interest, effort, and investment in microfluidics-based phenotypic AST. 13–17 Compared to the standard AST systems aforementioned (Table 1), microfluidics-based phenotypic AST allows versatile manipulation/organization of small-volume bacterial niches ( e.g. , micro- and sub-micro liter) on a device with small footprint, improved and high-resolution optical access, high throughput and flexible detection panel design.…”