Electrokinetics in antimicrobial resistance analysis: A review.

Area of Science:

• Microbiology and Biotechnology
• Bioengineering and Biomedical Devices

Background:

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a global health threat, necessitating rapid diagnostic tools.
• Current antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and bacterial identification methods are often slow and inefficient.
• Efficient sample pretreatment is crucial for timely and accurate diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the application of electrokinetic (EK) phenomena for bacteria manipulation, focusing on rapid diagnostics.
• To explore EK-based methods for bacteria enrichment, separation, and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) measurement.
• To identify future directions and challenges in EK-based rapid antimicrobial resistance detection.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on electrokinetic phenomena applied to bacteria.
• Analysis of EK techniques for bacterial enrichment and separation.
• Focus on rapid electric-field-based minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) measurement methods.

Main Results:

• Electrokinetic manipulation provides a promising platform for rapid bacteria enrichment and separation.
• Electric-field-based methods can significantly accelerate the process of determining minimum inhibitory concentrations.
• The integration of EK techniques offers potential for faster and more accurate antimicrobial resistance diagnostics.

Conclusions:

• Electrokinetic manipulation presents a viable strategy for accelerating antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
• Further research into EK-based methods can lead to significant improvements in diagnosing antimicrobial resistance.
• Addressing current challenges will be key to the clinical implementation of these rapid diagnostic technologies.