Rapid, Personalized Susceptibility Test to Accelerate Antimicrobial Resistance Epidemiology Study in Remote Settings

Taslimarif Saiyed from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in India will develop microfluidics-based pH sensors for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) detection. AMR is big healthcare challenge worldwide and particularly in India. Susceptibility assays are vital to study the emergence of new AMR strains in a community or geography, especially during epidemics. The proposed system - Rapid Personalized Antibiotic Susceptibility Assay (r-PASA) - is a DNA-based assay with pH sensors on a microfluidics platform. Microfluidic channels were chosen due to their suitability for rapid bacterial growth, and the reaction mechanism involves the accumulation of organic acids as a function of bacterial growth that changes the pH of the growth medium. Since testing pH at microliter (<5 μl) or nanoliter volumes is challenging, the device includes a DNA sensor based on a mismatched duplex such that acidic pH brings two flourophores' close together for a Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) reaction that can be monitored by fluorescence imaging using a reader integrated into the device. The microfluidic channels use various classes of commonly used antibiotics in different concentrations to ascertain and quantify resistance at the same time.