Development of a miniaturized imaging system for antimicrobial resistance profiling at the point of need

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the top ten global public health threats and responsible for 700,000 deaths annually, a figure that is projected to rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if no action is taken to halt this global threat. The overuse of antibiotics and the prescription of antibiotics to which bacteria are not susceptible, contribute to the rise of antibiotic resistance. AMR is an urgent and complex problem that poses major health and economic threats, both within Canada and worldwide. The gold standard antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) assays are time (2- 3 days) and labor intensive suited for centralized lab facilities. We gather a team of experts at McGill University, MUHC and Nikon Canada Inc. to develop a portable and cost-effective testing platform for rapid phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) with versatile functionality for a broad range of pathogenic bacteria and the possibility for direct testing of human samples at the point of need such as remote locations and low resource areas. The proposed diagnostic platform is based on a novel plasmonic nanostructure that provides an ultrasensitive optical readout during the conversion of resazurin to resorufin- an indicator for bacterial viability and growth during antibiotic exposure. Here, we propose to integrate our novel colorimetric nanostructures with a microfluidic sample delivery for portable multiplex AST in less than 1 hour. With the support of Nikon (in-kind contribution), we will develop a portable and miniaturized imaging box capable of holding the microfluidic cartridge for real-time imaging and data acquisition. Finally, we will test the platform in clinical specimens from patients with suspected bacteremia at different stages of sample processing and compare the results with standard AST for microbial identification and susceptibility testing. The proposed approach reduces the turnaround time of the AST to less than 1 hour, advances our knowledge of developing low-cost diagnostic methods ($5 per test), generate innovations and secure commercialization that energize Canadian economy. The potential to reduce the time-to-result of diagnostics a low-cost has significant economic impact on the Canadian health system.