Method Based on the β-Lactamase PenPC Fluorescent Labeled for β-Lactam Antibiotic Quantification in Human Plasma

Recently, Wong et al. have successfully developed a fluorescent biosensor based on the PenPC β-lactamase which changes its intrinsic fluorescence in presence of β-lactam antibiotics (BLAs). Here, we studied systematically this correlation among the fluorescence change of the biosensor and the concentration of different BLAs aimed at developing a novel method for estimating the concentration of a wide range of BLAs. This method showed high precision and specificity and very low interference from clinically relevant samples. We were able to monitor the pharmacokinetics of meropenem in healthy volunteers as well as in an ill animal model too, indicating that the implemented method could be suitable for clinical practice.