Raman spectroscopy—a tool for rapid differentiation among microbes causing urinary tract infections

• Published in: Analytica chimica acta Vol. 1191; p. 339292
• Main Authors: Rebrošová, Katarína, Bernatová, Silvie, Šiler, Martin, Uhlirova, Magdalena, Samek, Ota, Ježek, Jan, Holá, Veronika, Růžička, Filip, Zemanek, Pavel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 25.01.2022
• Subjects: Bacteria; Cell Differentiation; Humans; Optical trapping; Pilot Projects; Raman spectroscopy; Raman tweezers; Spectrum Analysis, Raman; Urinary tract infections; Urinary Tract Infections - diagnosis; Optical trapping; Urinary tract infections; Bacteria; Raman tweezers; Raman spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0003-2670; 1873-4324
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2021.339292

Urinary tract infections belong to the most common infections in the world. Besides community-acquired infections, nosocomial infections pose a high risk especially for patients having indwelling catheters, undergoing urological surgeries or staying at hospital for prolonged time. They can be often complicated by antimicrobial resistance and/or biofilm formation. Therefore, a rapid diagnostic tool enabling timely identification of a causative agent and its susceptibility to antimicrobials is a need. Raman spectroscopy appears to be a suitable method that allows rapid differentiation among microbes and provides a space for further analyses, such as determination of capability of biofilm formation or antimicrobial susceptibility/resistance in tested strains. Our work here presents a possibility to differ among most common microbes causing urinary tract infections (belonging to 20 species). We tested 254 strains directly from colonies grown on Mueller-Hinton agar plates. The results show that it is possible to distinguish among the tested species using Raman spectroscopy, which proves its great potential for future use in clinical diagnostics. Moreover, we present here a pilot study of a real-time analysis and identification (in less than 10 min) of single microbial cells directly in urine employing optical tweezers combined with Raman spectroscopy. [Display omitted] •Raman spectroscopy can reliably differentiate among microbes causing urinary tract infections.•Overall accuracy was 95.9%—considering individual spectra—and over 97%—considering individual strains.•Raman tweezers offer a new approach allowing identification of microorganisms directly from a human liquid sample (urine).