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Microfluidic-Based Technologies for Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance

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A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B：Biology and Biomedicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 14309

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xunli Zhang

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: microfluidics; drug delivery systems; nanomedicine; bioanalysis; biomicrofluidics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Sammer-ul Hassan

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Interests: microfluidics; droplet-based microfluidics; lab-on-a-chip; biomedical microdevices; biosensor development; continuous chemical sensing; point-of-care diagnostics; high-throughput microfluidic systems; optical detections and microfabrication

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antimicrobial resistant bacteria has been recognised as a global threat and requires a robust and collective response from every stakeholder of society and by public health institutions. Current standard technologies to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are time consuming, expensive, labour intensive and are central lab-based solutions. This poses an increasing threat, especially in remote areas where access to these sophisticated technologies is limited. Contrary to conventional technologies, microfluidics has become an enabling platform for point-of-care (POC) testing of AMR in healthcare, providing simple, robust, cost-effective and portable diagnostics. This is an emerging field globally and it can have a large impact on people's lives. Therefore, we propose that this Special Issue will attract high-quality publications from around the globe and will, hence, be of interest to readers.

Prof. Dr. Xunli Zhang
Dr. Sammer-ul Hassan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

microfluidics
point of care
antimicrobial resistance
lab on a chip
antibiotic
capillary flow
colorimetry
antimicrobial susceptibility testing
minimum inhibitory concentration
bacterial identification
miniaturization
microsystems
rapid diagnostics

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 2679 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Fabrication of Optical Flow Cell for Multiplex Detection of β-lactamase in Microchannels

by Sammer-ul Hassan and Xunli Zhang

Micromachines 2020, 11(4), 385; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11040385 - 05 Apr 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2472

Abstract

Miniaturized quantitative assays offer multiplexing capability in a microfluidic device for high-throughput applications such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) studies. The detection of these multiple microchannels in a single microfluidic device becomes crucial for point-of-care (POC) testing and clinical diagnostics. This paper showcases an optical flow cell for detection of parallel microchannels in a microfluidic chip. The flow cell operates by measuring the light intensity from the microchannels based on Beer-Lambert law in a linearly moving chip. While this platform could be tailored for a wide variety of applications, here we show the design, fabrication and working principle of the device. β-lactamase, an indicator of bacterial resistance to β-lactam antibiotics, especially in milk, is shown as an example. The flow cell has a small footprint and uses low-powered, low-cost components, which makes it ideally suited for use in portable devices that require multiple sample detection in a single chip. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic-Based Technologies for Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance)

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14 pages, 3511 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Combinatorial Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Enabled by Non-Contact Printing

by Adam S. Opalski, Artur Ruszczak, Yurii Promovych, Michał Horka, Ladislav Derzsi and Piotr Garstecki

Micromachines 2020, 11(2), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11020142 - 28 Jan 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3776

Abstract

We demonstrate the utility of non-contact printing to fabricate the mAST—an easy-to-operate, microwell-based microfluidic device for combinatorial antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) in a point-of-care format. The wells are prefilled with antibiotics in any desired concentration and combination by non-contact printing (spotting). For the execution of the AST, the only requirements are the mAST device, the sample, and the incubation chamber. Bacteria proliferation can be continuously monitored by using an absorbance reader. We investigate the profile of resistance of two reference Escherichia coli strains, report the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for single antibiotics, and assess drug–drug interactions in cocktails by using the Bliss independence model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic-Based Technologies for Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance)

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12 pages, 17675 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Cross-Flow Filtration of Escherichia coli at a Nanofluidic Gap for Fast Immobilization and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

by Jan F. Busche, Svenja Möller, Matthias Stehr and Andreas Dietzel

Micromachines 2019, 10(10), 691; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10100691 - 12 Oct 2019

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3511

Abstract

Infections with antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria are globally on the rise. In the future, multi-resistant infections will become one of the major problems in global health care. In order to enable reserve antibiotics to retain their effect as long as possible, broad-spectrum antibiotics must be used sparingly. This can be achieved by a rapid microfluidic phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility test, which provides the information needed for a targeted antibiotic therapy in less time than conventional tests. Such microfluidic tests must cope with a low bacteria concentration. On-chip filtering of the samples to accumulate bacteria can shorten the test time. By means of fluorescence microscopy, we examined a novel nanogap filtration principle to hold back Escherichia coli and to perform cultivation experiments with and without antibiotics present. Microfluidic chips based on the nanogap flow principle showed to be useful for the concentration and cultivation of E. coli. With a concentration of 10⁶ cells/mL, a specific growth rate of 0.013 min⁻¹ and a doubling time of 53 min were achieved. In the presence of an antibiotic, no growth was observed. The results prove that this principle can, in future, be used in fast and marker-free antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic-Based Technologies for Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance)

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Review

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14 pages, 5130 KiB

Open AccessReview

Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Microfluidic Systems for Point-of-Care Applications

by Yeşeren Saylan and Adil Denizli

Micromachines 2019, 10(11), 766; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10110766 - 11 Nov 2019

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 4004

Abstract

Fast progress has been witnessed in the field of microfluidic systems and allowed outstanding approaches to portable, disposable, low-cost, and easy-to-operate platforms especially for monitoring health status and point-of-care applications. For this purpose, molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-based microfluidics systems can be synthesized using desired templates to create specific and selective cavities for interaction. This technique guarantees a wide range of versatility to imprint diverse sets of biomolecules with different structures, sizes, and physical and chemical features. Owing to their physical and chemical robustness, cost-friendliness, high stability, and reusability, MIP-based microfluidics systems have become very attractive modalities. This review is structured according to the principles of MIPs and microfluidic systems, the integration of MIPs with microfluidic systems, the latest strategies and uses for point-of-care applications and, finally, conclusions and future perspectives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic-Based Technologies for Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance)

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