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Updated: Jul 5, 2025
The Use of a β-lactamase-based Conductimetric Biosensor Assay to Detect Biomolecular Interactions
Published on: February 1, 2018
Rapid and visual identification of β-lactamase subtypes for precision antibiotic therapy
Wenshuai Li1,2, Jingqi Li1,2, Hua Xu3
1State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Frontiers Science Centers for Cell Responses and New Organic Matter, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
Abstract:
The abuse of antibiotics urgently requires rapid identification of drug-resistant bacteria at the point of care (POC). Here we report a visual paper sensor that allows rapid (0.25-3 h) discrimination of the subtypes of β-lactamase (the major cause of bacterial resistance) for precision antibiotic therapy. The sensor exhibits high performance in identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria with 100 real samples from patients with diverse bacterial infections, demonstrating 100% clinical sensitivity and specificity. Further, this sensor can enhance the accuracy of antibiotic use from 48% empirically to 83%, and further from 50.6% to 97.6% after eliminating fungal infection cases. Our work provides a POC testing platform for guiding effective management of bacterial infections in both hospital and community settings.
