Fibre Optic Biosensor Platform for Rapid Test of Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant economic burden to NHS; costing the UK government ~£180 million annually. It also presents a vital detriment to human welfare and health. Diagnose and treating AMR represent significant challenges in health care industry globally. However, there is an opportunity to develop disruptive approaches to identifying AMR at earlier stage, to guide doctors to treat patient.
Current AMR testing methods include (1) culture-based technology, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), (2) DNA microarray, and (3) whole-genome sequencing and metagenomics. Culture-based method is the golden standard in clinic testing, however it suffers disadvantage of long operation time (typically 1-3 days), which significantly delays treatment to patients and thus results in increased mortality (such as sepsis patient). All above tests require dedicated clinical laboratory, expensive instrument and highly skilled staff.
Significant concerns have been raised on the rising of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae including K. Pneumoniae and E. Coli due to the acquisition of carbapenemase. The rate of hospital-acquired carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterale infection was 15% and all carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterale were multi-drug resistant in a recent report from Ethiopia. The carbapenemase-producing E. Coli and K. Pneumoniae are also reported in hospital-acquired infection in UK. Developing sensitive and affordable method to test for such resistance is a key for early diagnosing the carbapenem resistance infection among patient with hospital-acquired infection. In addition to K. Pneumoniae and E. Coli, other bacteria such as Pseudomonas Aeruginosa can also gain the trait and exhibit resistance not only to b-lactam, but also to other groups of antibiotics. Carbapenemase can be recognized to several classes including class A (KPC), Class B (VIM, IMP, NDM) and class D (OXA-48). NDM and KPC are the two most prevalent carbapenemases in many countries...