Nanosensor-Enabled Detection and Identification of Intracellular Bacterial Infections in Macrophages

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Infectious Diseases
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Opportunistic bacterial pathogens infect immune cells like macrophages, creating reservoirs that hinder treatment.
• Current detection methods (immunosensing, PCR) are slow, complex, and difficult to generalize for intracellular infections.
• Intracellular infections alter macrophage cell surface glycosylation, offering a potential diagnostic signature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel sensor array for detecting intracellular bacterial infections in macrophages.
• To leverage changes in cell surface glycosylation as a signature for infection detection.
• To provide a rapid and broadly applicable diagnostic tool for intracellular bacterial infections.

Main Methods:

• Engineered a boronic acid (BA)-based pH-responsive polymer sensor array.
• Utilized the sensor array to detect distinct cell surface glycosylation signatures on infected macrophages.
• Tested the sensor's ability to discriminate between different bacterial infection types.

Main Results:

• The sensor array successfully detected bacterial infection within macrophages.
• The system distinguished between various infecting bacterial species based on glycosylation profiles.
• Detection and discrimination were achieved within minutes, demonstrating high efficiency.

Conclusions:

• Boronic acid-based polymer sensor arrays offer a promising strategy for rapid, signature-based detection of intracellular bacterial infections.
• This approach can overcome limitations of current diagnostic methods, improving speed and applicability.
• The developed sensor holds potential for clinical diagnostic and screening applications in infectious diseases.