Nanomechanical Sensors as a Tool for Bacteria Detection and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

Abstract

Nanomechanical biosensors refer to a subfamily of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) consisting of movable suspended microstructures able to convert biological processes into measurable mechanical motion. Owing to this, nanomechanical biosensors have become a promising technology in the way to detect and manage bacterial pathogens with improved effectiveness. The precise treatment of an infection relies on its early diagnosis; however, the current standard culture-based methods for bacteria detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing involve long protocols and are labor intensive. Thanks to its high sensitivity, fast response, and high throughput capability, nanomechanical technology holds great potential for overcoming some of the limitations of conventional methods. This review aims to provide a perspective on the diverse transducer structures, working principles, and detection strategies of nanomechanical sensors for bacteria detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Their performance in terms of sensitivity and operation time is compared with standard methods currently used in clinical microbiology laboratories. In addition, commercial systems already developed and challenges in the way of reaching real sensing application beyond the research environment are discussed.

Advances in Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Using Sensors and Biosensors: A Review

“…Some examples of these genes are reported in Table 1. The previous decade has seen a notable increase in the development of chemical sensors and biosensors for phenotypic AMR detection [18,[74][75][76][77]. Herein, sensors and biosensors for AMR testing have been classified according to the transducer used, and thus are discussed as magnetic, mass, mechanical, thermal, optical, and electrochemical.…”

“…Herein, sensors and biosensors for AMR testing have been classified according to the transducer used, and thus are discussed as magnetic, mass, mechanical, thermal, optical, and electrochemical. Mechanical sensors and biosensors are devices sensitive to physical changes in mechanical properties and capable to convert interactions and processes occurring at their surface into measurable mechanical properties [76]. Optical sensors are based on the measurement of reflectance, chemiluminescence, absorbance, fluorescence, Raman scattering, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [78][79][80][81].…”

“…Mechanical sensors have been proposed for AST [76,98]. The forces produced by the interaction of the target species with the receptors immobilized on the cantilever determine a change in the cantilever resonance frequency that behaves as a harmonic oscillator.…”

A2BC-Type Porphyrin SAM on Gold Surface for Bacteria Detection Applications: Synthesis and Surface Functionalization

“…The other method detects the complete bacterial cell without further sample preparation. For whole bacterial cell detection optical, mechanical or electrochemical sensor systems are investigated which are functionalized on their electrode surface with different bioreceptors like antibodies, artificial binding proteins, DNA/RNA aptamers or bacteriophages [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Bio-inspired porphyrins as a modifier for these sensing systems are of interest due to their biological compatibility, their fluorescence in the visible range, and their chemical stability under ambient conditions.…”

Direct Color Observation of Light‐Driven Molecular Conformation‐Induced Stress

“…and bio-chemical interactions. [10,11] For instance, the structural evolutions of the molecular switches topoisomerase II, [12] bacteriorhodopsin, [13] calmodulin, [14] DNA, [15] azobenzene, [16] and spiropyran [17] have been successfully interrogated with mechanical sensors.…”