Sepsis is a life-threatening condition with systemic
inflammatory
responses caused by bacterial infections. Considering the emergence
of antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA),
sepsis is a great threat to public health. The gold standard methods
for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), however, take at least
approximately 3 days to implement the entire blood culture, pure culture,
and AST processes. To overcome the time-consuming nature of conventional
AST, a method employing a chromatic biosensor composed of poly(diacetylene),
alginate, and LB broth (PAL) is introduced in this study. Compared
to the gold standards, AST with PAL biosensors can be completed within
a time frame as short as 16 h. Such a significant reduction in time
is possible because the consecutive cultures and AST are carried out
simultaneously by encapsulating the bacterial nutrients and detection
molecules into a single component. The bead-like hydrogel sensors
were used in their freeze-dried form, which endows them with portability
and stability, thus making them adequate for point-of-care testing.
The PAL biosensor yields minimum inhibitory concentrations comparable
to those from the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, and
the applicability of the biosensor is further shown in MRSA-infected
mice.