Antimicrobial susceptibility assays based on the quantification of bacterial lipopolysaccharides via a label free...

A label free lectin biosensor developed in our laboratory that can quantitatively measure the binding between the lectin immobilized at the carbohydrate sensor surface and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on Gram-negative bacteria was demonstrated for an antibiotic susceptibility assay. The biosensor utilizes a polythiophene interface containing fused quinone moieties glycosylated to form a carbohydrate platform for the immobilization of Concanavalin A (Con A) and is capable of LPS binding measurements via orthogonal quartz crystal microbalance and electrochemical readouts (EQCM). Such orthogonal transduction provides cross-validation, better sensor sensitivity, and a large dynamic range of the measurements. We have applied this label free lectin biosensor for a new antibiotic susceptibility assay by characterizing the antimicrobial activities of various antibiotics (i.e., ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and tetracycline) against Escherichia coli W1485 as a model system. The label free biosensor allows both end point and real time measurements of antibiotic effects on the bacterial cell surface LPS, which is shown to correlate to their antibiotic effects. At the end point, after 18 h incubation of bacterial cells with these three antibiotics respectively, the bacterial LPS binding signal was reduced to 23%, 27%, and 38%, respectively, for the three antibiotics, indicating that ciprofloxacin is the most effective against this E. coli strain. Real time measurements at the 1 h time point showed a similar trend with a reduction of binding to 91%, 93%, and 95%, respectively. From the binding kinetics of these measurements, the relaxation time (τ) was obtained, where higher τ value means slow binding interactions between the lectin and the bacterial LPS. The obtained order of τ, (i.e., τciprofloxacin > τceftriaxone > τtetracycline) again indicated that ciprofloxacin has more bactericidal activity than the other two antibiotics with the same concentrations. Thus, we are able to establish that the reduction in the binding of LPS with the lectin Con A sensor upon exposure to various antibiotics has a direct relation with the antibiotic dosages making this label free biosensor assay promising for therapeutic management of these drugs as well as for applications in antibiotic research and development.