Electrochemical detection of antibiotic resistance

Presentation

A NEW method for RAPID and SPECIFIC detection of β-lactamase-producing bacteria.

This new method, based on a cost-effective electrochemical detection with disposable sensors, allows the direct analysis of the sample without the need of a previous isolation step, and provides a quantitative result easy to read without misinterpretation of intermediate colors, as it may sometimes be the case in colorimetric assays.

The method allows rapid (30-120 min) and specific detection of both 3rd-generation cephalosporins and carbapenem-resistant bacteria.

Validation

• Analysis of 95 strains (liquid cultures and isolates) characterized for the β-lactamase content with susceptibility testing and at molecular level, including penicillinases (n = 13), chromosome-encoded cephalosporinases (n = 7), ESBLs (n = 48 ) representing the most common ones (CTX-M, SHV, TEM, VEB), overproduced cephalosporinases (n = 9) and carbapenemases (n = 18 ) with OXA-48 (n = 14), KPC-2 (n = 3 ) and NDM-1 (n = 1) types.
• Specificity rates of 95 % and 100 % for 3rd generation cephalosporins and carbapenem-resistance testing, respectively.
• In progress: Applications to blood culture analysis and to quantitative detection in water samples.

Competitive advantages

• No sample preparation;
• No specific technical skills;
• Rapidity (30-120 min);
• Quantitative measure / without subjective interpretation;
• Result traceability/Quality management.
  

Applications/Markets

• Health applications: In vitro diagnostic for testing antimicrobial resistance in clinical samples/ (blood cultures, clinical isolates and many other clinical samples analysis: urine, broncho-alveolar liquid, …);
• Environmental/Food applications: monitoring / quantitative detection of β-lactam resistant strains in water or food samples.
  

Intellectual property

• Patent application: «Nouvelle méthode pour détecter la présence de bactéries productrices de beta-lactamases» - filled in France on April 3rd 2015 – international filling (PCT) on April 1st 2016.