Raman spectrometry appears to be an opportunity to perform rapid tests in microbiological diagnostics as it provides phenotype-related information from single bacterial cells thus holding the promise of direct analysis of clinical specimens without any time-consuming growth phase. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of a rapid antibiotic-susceptibility determination based on the use of Raman spectra acquired on single bacterial cells. After a two-hour preculture step, one susceptible and two resistant E. coli strains were incubated, for only two hours, in the presence of different bactericidal antibiotics (gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin) in a range of concentrations that included the clinical breakpoints used as references in microbial diagnostic. Spectra were acquired and processed to isolate spectral modifications associated with the antibiotic effect. We evidenced an “antibiotic effect signature” which is expressed with specific Raman peaks and the coexistence of three spectral populations in the presence of antibiotic. We devised an algorithm and a test procedure that overcome single-cell heterogeneities to estimate the MIC and determinate the susceptibility phenotype of the tested bacteria using only a few single-cell spectra in four hours only if including the preculture step.

Single-cell characterisation and rapid enumeration of E. coli was achieved by confining them into the picoliter droplets of a water-in-oil fuorinated emulsion. Micro-confinement of Bacteria into w/o Emulsion Droplets for Rapid Detection and Enumeration AbstractToday, rapid detection and identification of bacteria in microbiological diagnosis is a major issue. Reference methods usually rely on growth of micro-organisms, with the drawback of lengthy time-to-result. The method provides global information on a clonal population that is known to be inhomogeneous relative to metabolic states and activities. Therefore, there may be a significant advantage of methods that allow characterization of individual bacteria from a large population, both for test time reduction and the clinical value of the characterization. We report here a method for rapid detection and real-time monitoring of the metabolic activities of single bacteria. Water-in-oil emulsions were used to encapsulate single Escherichia coli cells into picolitre (pL)-sized microreactor droplets. The glucuronidase activity in each droplet was monitored using the fluorogenic reporter molecule MUG (4-Methylumbelliferyl β-D-glucuronide) coupled to time-lapse fluorescence imaging of the droplets. Such bacterial confinement provides several major advantages. 2 1) Enzymatic activities of a large number of single bacterium-containing droplet could be monitored simultaneously, allowing the full characterization of metabolic heterogeneity in a clonal population. We monitored glucuronidase enzymatic activity and growth over ~200 single bacteria over a 24h-period. 2) Micro-confinement of cells in small volumes allows rapid accumulation of the fluorescent metabolite, hence decreasing the detection time. Independent of the initial concentration of bacteria in the sample, detection of the presence of bacteria could be achieved in less than two hours. 3) Considering the random distribution of bacteria in droplets, this method allowed rapid and reliable enumeration of bacteria in the initial sample. Overall, the results of this study showed that confinement of bacterial cells increased the effective concentration of fluorescent metabolites leading to rapid (2 h) detection of the fluorescent metabolites, thus significantly reducing time to numeration.

Two genetically modified HIV-1 capsid p24 proteins, RH24 and RH24K, were covalently bound to maleic anhydride-alt-methyl vinyl ether (MAMVE) copolymer, under aqueous conditions. We demonstrated that the addition of a six lysine unit tag at the COOH-terminus of RH24K greatly improved the grafting reaction which could take place under many different experimental conditions. The course of the reaction was controlled by electrostatic attractive forces between the protein and the negatively charged polymer, as the chemical binding was more efficient at low ionic strength. The maximum loading capacity of the polymer depended on whether the protein bore the lysine tag (RH24K) or not (RH24). Twenty-four molecules of RH24 could be immobilized per polymer chain and 49 for RH24K. Such a difference could be explained by a difference of orientation of the protein on the polymer, side-on for RH24 and end-on for RH24K to account for the observed high packing density.