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Updated: Jul 12, 2025
Author Spotlight: Scalable Drug Screening Protocol for Efficient Discovery of M. abscessus Treatments
Published on: October 25, 2024
Rapid Mycobacterium abscessus antimicrobial susceptibility testing based on antibiotic treatment response mapping via
Weicong Ren1, Yuli Mao2,3, Shanshan Li1
1Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Key Laboratory on Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Research, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis & Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, 101149, China.
Objectives:
Antimicrobial susceptibility tests (ASTs) are pivotal tools for detecting and combating infections caused by multidrug-resistant rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) but are time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Design:
We used a Mycobacterium abscessus-based RGM model to develop a rapid (24-h) AST from the beginning of the strain culture, the Clinical Antimicrobials Susceptibility Test Ramanometry for RGM (CAST-R-RGM). The ASTs obtained for 21 clarithromycin (CLA)-treated and 18 linezolid (LZD)-treated RGM isolates.
Results:
CAST-R-RGM employs D2O-probed Raman microspectroscopy to monitor RGM metabolic activity, while also revealing bacterial antimicrobial drug resistance mechanisms. The results of clarithromycin (CLA)-treated and linezolid (LZD)-treated RGM isolates exhibited 90% and 83% categorical agreement, respectively, with conventional AST results of the same isolates. Furthermore, comparisons of time- and concentration-dependent Raman results between CLA- and LZD-treated RGM strains revealed distinct metabolic profiles after 48-h and 72-h drug treatments, despite similar profiles obtained for both drugs after 24-h treatments.
Conclusions:
Ultimately, the rapid, accurate, and low-cost CAST-R-RGM assay offers advantages over conventional culture-based ASTs that warrant its use as a tool for improving patient treatment outcomes and revealing bacterial drug resistance mechanisms.
