Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2025 | Viewed by 3576

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer Sheba, Israel
Interests: FTIR-microscopy; infrared spectroscopy; fluorescence spectroscopy; Raman; biomedical applications; machine learning; medical physics; optical diagnostics

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Guest Editor
Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
Interests: machine learning; unsupervised learning; biomedical applications; optical diagnostics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bacterial infections are responsible for a variety of diseases, and antibiotics serve as the primary line of treatment. Unfortunately, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance among various bacterial species poses a significant challenge, resulting in difficult-to-treat infections.

The main reason behind the development of multi-drug-resistant bacteria is the long duration required for laboratory results to determine bacterial antibiotic susceptibility. Hence, the rapid identification of bacterial antibiotic resistance is crucial. Current methods used for detecting antibiotic resistance are costly and time-consuming (lasting 48–72 hours). Rapid approaches have a high impact on multiple fronts, including ensuring timely and potentially life-saving treatment for patients, limiting the development and spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria, and reducing the duration of illness and treatment. This, in turn, helps lower healthcare costs and eases the economic burden on families and society.

This Special Issue extends an invitation for original research articles and reviews, seeking to collate a comprehensive collection of papers on efficient methodologies for determining antimicrobial susceptibility. The goal is to showcase advancements that revolutionize our ability to promptly and accurately identify antibiotic resistance, fostering a more effective and efficient approach toward bacterial infection management. Researchers are encouraged to contribute their insights, innovations, and findings to propel the field forward, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes and addressing the global challenge of antibiotic resistance.

Prof. Dr. Ahmad Salman
Prof. Dr. Itshak Lapidot
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • bacterial infection
  • antibiotic
  • multi-drug resistance
  • bacterial susceptibility to antimicrobials
  • bacterial culturing
  • spectroscopy
  • machine learning

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 637 KiB  
Article
Efficient Absorbance-Based Assay for Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing of Enterobacterales
by Carolina Axelsson, Bo Nilson and Ann-Sofi Rehnstam-Holm
Antibiotics 2024, 13(9), 852; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13090852 - 6 Sep 2024
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Abstract
It is increasingly important to rapidly receive information on the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria due to the rise in antimicrobial resistance worldwide. However, traditional phenotypic methods are time-consuming. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop a rapid assay that can detect [...] Read more.
It is increasingly important to rapidly receive information on the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria due to the rise in antimicrobial resistance worldwide. However, traditional phenotypic methods are time-consuming. Thus, the objective of this study was to develop a rapid assay that can detect antibiotic-resistant bacterial isolates phenotypically in less than 2 h. The microplate assay used in this study is based on absorbance measurements of pure bacterial isolates grown in liquid media with and without antibiotics. Absorbance was measured at the beginning of the assay and after 90 min of incubation at 37 °C. Susceptibility was calculated for bacterial isolates that, in the absence of antibiotics, exhibited more than a 50% growth increase by comparing the absorbance value of the culture in the presence of an antibiotic at 90 min with its initial value. Here, we show that it is possible to phenotypically screen the antibiotic susceptibility of Enterobacterales and Acinetobacter spp. isolates to three different antibiotics in 90 min. The test demonstrated an accuracy of 98.8%, sensitivity of 97.6%, and specificity of 99.6%. The false susceptibility rates were 0.2% and false resistance rates were 1.0%. This rapid and simple absorbance test has proven suitable for the screening of antibiotic susceptibility for a large number of strains with high accuracy and sensitivity. This method can be performed without specialized and costly materials and/or equipment, which makes it highly suitable for laboratories with limited resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing)
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26 pages, 513 KiB  
Review
Rapid Phenotypic and Genotypic Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Approaches for Use in the Clinical Laboratory
by Siham Hattab, Adrienne H. Ma, Zoon Tariq, Ilianne Vega Prado, Ian Drobish, Rachel Lee and Rebecca Yee
Antibiotics 2024, 13(8), 786; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13080786 - 22 Aug 2024
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Abstract
The rapid rise in increasingly resistant bacteria has become a major threat to public health. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is crucial in guiding appropriate therapeutic decisions and infection prevention practices for patient care. However, conventional culture-based AST methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, [...] Read more.
The rapid rise in increasingly resistant bacteria has become a major threat to public health. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is crucial in guiding appropriate therapeutic decisions and infection prevention practices for patient care. However, conventional culture-based AST methods are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, rapid AST approaches exist to address the delayed gap in time to actionable results. There are two main types of rapid AST technologies— phenotypic and genotypic approaches. In this review, we provide a summary of all commercially available rapid AST platforms for use in clinical microbiology laboratories. We describe the technologies utilized, performance characteristics, acceptable specimen types, types of resistance detected, turnaround times, limitations, and clinical outcomes driven by these rapid tests. We also discuss crucial factors to consider for the implementation of rapid AST technologies in a clinical laboratory and what the future of rapid AST holds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing)
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