Trends in Biotechnology
OpinionMicrofluidics for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance
Section snippets
Antimicrobial Resistance Demands Innovative Solutions
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR; see Glossary), a natural phenomenon where microbes become resistant to antibiotics, has become an imminent threat to global public health and the modern society. The large-scale use of antibiotics and issues associated with the practice have greatly accelerated the progress of AMR, rendering these once ‘panaceas’ largely ineffective and leaving us without the important defense against many pathogenic microbes. The looming ‘post-antibiotic age’ is closer than ever,
The Threat of AMR
Huge quantities of antibiotics are used annually around the globe, and the numbers are expected to rise continuously 1, 2, 3. This tips the balance in favor of resistant strains, as the drugs act as a selection pressure, especially when they are misused or overused. Approximately 80% of human antibiotic consumption occurs outside the hospital [3], which limits professional guidance and leads to many mistakes, such as taking antibiotics to treat common cold, which is usually caused by viruses.
Microfluidics Addressing Key Issues in AMR
Microfluidics is an innovative and expanding field of research involving multiple disciplines in science and engineering. Its general background was well-summarized by Whitesides [11], while others have reviewed its application and potential in biology, chemistry, and medicine 12, 13. In dealing with tiny volumes of fluid on devices bearing features at the micrometer level, microfluidic systems and tools bring the scale of experimentation and analysis down drastically, resulting in distinct
Concluding Remarks and Future Perspectives
‘Good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living, that’s something else.’ For employing microfluidics to combat key aspects of AMR, the former has been demonstrated well in research studies, while the latter has yet to be proven. While the advantages to be gained in speed, efficiency, and cost, as well as in those new capabilities, are fascinating, microfluidics has to show its utility and feasibility in places it is expected to shine. Among those examples of research, few used real
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Hong Kong Baptist University (FRG2/15-16/002, FRG2/16-17/062, SDF 03-17-096), Hong Kong RGC (22200515), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21575121).
Glossary
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- the ability of a microorganism to prevent an antimicrobial agent from working against it, rendering standard treatment ineffective.
- Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST)
- experiments conducted to determine if a strain of bacteria is sensitive to certain antibiotics. Results can be qualitative or quantitative, and are used to guide prescription of suitable drugs at proper dosage.
- Empirical prescription
- prescribing antimicrobial drugs based on experience and educated
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“Barcode” cell sensor microfluidic system: Rapid and sample-to-answer antimicrobial susceptibility testing applicable in resource-limited conditions
2021, Biosensors and BioelectronicsCitation Excerpt :Actually, additional pre-incubation is often needed when the initial bacteria density is not high enough in the sample; for instance, MIC value determination via the broth dilution method typically requires 105 cells (CLSI, 2021; Dolinsky, 2017). Moreover, these methods are usually labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive to operate, which are significant drawbacks for onsite mass-screening (Benkova et al., 2020b; Khan et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2017). When considering extreme cases such as the outbreak of a pandemic, the fatal weaknesses of the culture-based phenotypic ASTs are more apparent when a large number of time-sensitive suspected samples need processing at the same time.
Effects of emerging pollutants on the occurrence and transfer of antibiotic resistance genes: A review
2021, Journal of Hazardous MaterialsCitation Excerpt :The first green fluorescent spot that randomly appeared in the microscopic image was considered as the primary transconjugant caused by horizontal transfer, whereas the fluorescence extension from that spot via cell division was attributed to a vertical transfer event (Li et al., 2019). Despite the powerful performance of microfluidics, some obstacles cannot be ignored (Liu et al., 2017): (1) the potential impacts of miniaturized designs on sample analysis; (2) the disadvantages of the most popular material polydimethylsiloxane, such as deformation, evaporation, and small molecular absorption; and (3) the higher costs associated with overcoming these issues. Microorganisms generate resistance to specific antibiotics through four pathways, including impermeable barriers, efflux pumps, resistance mutations, and drug inactivation (Allen et al., 2010).
Controllable design of a nano-bio aptasensing interface based on tetrahedral framework nucleic acids in an integrated microfluidic platform
2021, Biosensors and BioelectronicsCitation Excerpt :The main challenges of conventional pathogen detection methods and drug sensitivity tests are analysis speed, sensitivity and requirement of intricate instruments and complex operation (Bush et al., 2011; Shin et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2016). As is well known, microfluidic assay is a very promising solution for rapid and sensitive pathogen analysis (Li et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2017; Qu et al., 2017). In the work, we successfully developed an integrated “one-stop” microfluidic biosensor, adapting the joint merits of microfluidic system and FNAs for pathogens monitoring.
Recent trends on the development of systems for cancer diagnosis and treatment by microfluidic technology
2020, Applied Materials TodayCitation Excerpt :Microfluidic technology allows the integration of several steps into single automated platforms (lab-on-a-chip), lowering the cost and time spent on analysis, compared to traditional laboratory techniques. These systems have been reported in the last decades for several biological and medical applications in cell culture, antimicrobial screening, design of drug delivery systems, as well in the development of point-of-care (POC) systems [22–32]. As a result of its numerous advantages, microfluidic devices have emerged as promising tools for research and applications in oncology, because the manipulation of small volumes of liquid is ideal for tumour cell sorting from biofluids or liquid cultures, and the development of 2D and 3D cell culture models for cancer cell, allows the migration/metastasis studies and drug screening, as well as the design of sophisticated drug delivery systems that are able to carry anti-cancer therapeutic drugs [33–41].
Miniaturised detection systems
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