[Therapeutic monitoring of antibiotics: New methodologies: biosensors]

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy
• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry

Context:

• Critically ill patients exhibit altered antibiotic pharmacokinetics, rendering standard empiric dosing inadequate.
• Current methods for quantifying plasma antibiotic concentrations are costly and complex, limiting routine clinical use.
• There is a lack of routine, low-cost methods for determining beta-lactam antibiotic levels in patient plasma.

Purpose:

• To address the inadequacy of current empiric antibiotic dosing in intensive care unit (ICU) patients.
• To explore advanced analytical techniques for optimizing antibiotic therapy through therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).
• To investigate the feasibility of using biosensors for rapid and cost-effective quantification of beta-lactam antibiotics in plasma.

Summary:

• Antibiotic pharmacokinetics are significantly altered in severely ill patients, necessitating a reevaluation of current dosing strategies.
• Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is crucial for optimizing antibiotic efficacy but faces challenges due to the complexity and cost of existing analytical methods.
• This work reviews various techniques and presents preliminary findings on the use of biosensors for detecting and quantifying beta-lactam antibiotics in plasma, offering a potential low-cost solution.

Impact:

• Potential to improve clinical outcomes for critically ill patients by enabling personalized antibiotic dosing.
• Development of accessible and affordable diagnostic tools for routine clinical application in resource-limited settings.
• Advancement of biosensor technology for therapeutic drug monitoring, moving beyond traditional chromatographic methods.