A Microfluidic Device for Nucleic Acid-Based Analysis of Helicobacter pylori and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

Greenhalgh, L, Rashid, M, Linton, PE ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1106-4988 and Shaw, KJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4195 (2020) A Microfluidic Device for Nucleic Acid-Based Analysis of Helicobacter pylori and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing. In: 7th International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietna, (BME7), 27 June 2018 - 29 June 2018, Ho Chi Min City.

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Abstract

© 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. Rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections enables earlier implementation of appropriate and effective treatment regimens, therefore improving patient outcomes. We have previously demonstrated a microfluidic device for nucleic acid-based analysis of Helicobacter pylori, which can cause peptic ulcers and increase the risk of stomach cancer. One of the major challenges to overcome has been the use of challenging real-world samples, e.g. stool, and urine allowing use at the point-of-care. Here we present results for bacterial identification as well as initial studies on the use of screen-printed electrodes (SPE) for miniaturised electrochemical detection for determining antibiotic susceptibility of pathogenic Escherichia coli. Resazurin was used as an indicator of bacterial viability, with reduction of resazurin demonstrating continued cell growth. Differential pulse voltammetry was used to measure potential reduction and showed measurement at −0.58 V or −0.38 V to be the most discriminatory. A fixed voltage of −0.58 V was then used to monitor current changes as a function of increasing gentamycin (antibiotic) concentration, with the results showing a significant reduction in current with increasing amounts of gentamycin (ANOVA, p < 0.001), within 90 min. The ability to integrate diagnosis with antibiotic susceptibility testing would allow administration of timely and specific treatment to patients with serious infections in low-resource settings.