Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing of Uropathogenic E. coli by Tracking Submicron Scale Motion of Single Bacterial Cells

• Published in: ACS sensors Vol. 2; no. 8; pp. 1231 - 1239
• Main Authors: Syal, Karan, Shen, Simon, Yang, Yunze, Wang, Shaopeng, Haydel, Shelley E, Tao, Nongjian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 25.08.2017
• Subjects: bacterial viability; microscopic urinalysis; antibiotic resistant; bacterial motion; imaging diagnostics; rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test
• ISSN: 2379-3694; 2379-3694
• DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.7b00392

To combat antibiotic resistance, a rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) technology that can identify resistant infections at disease onset is required. Current clinical AST technologies take 1–3 days, which is often too slow for accurate treatment. Here we demonstrate a rapid AST method by tracking sub-μm scale bacterial motion with an optical imaging and tracking technique. We apply the method to clinically relevant bacterial pathogens, Escherichia coli O157: H7 and uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) loosely tethered to a glass surface. By analyzing dose-dependent sub-μm motion changes in a population of bacterial cells, we obtain the minimum bactericidal concentration within 2 h using human urine samples spiked with UPEC. We validate the AST method using the standard culture-based AST methods. In addition to population studies, the method allows single cell analysis, which can identify subpopulations of resistance strains within a sample.