Integrated Electrochemical Aptamer Biosensing and Colorimetric pH Monitoring via Hydrogel Microneedle Assays for Assessing Antibiotic Treatment

Abstract

Current methods for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) have a long turnaround time as they involve collecting patients' blood samples followed by transferring the samples to medical laboratories where sample processing and analysis are performed. To enable real‐time and minimally invasive TDM, a microneedle (MN) biosensor to monitor the levels of two important antibiotics, vancomycin (VAN) and gentamicin (GEN) is developed. The MN biosensor is composed of a hydrogel MN (HMN), and an aptamer‐functionalized flexible (Flex) electrode, named HMN‐Flex. The HMN extracts dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) and transfers it to the Flex electrode where sensing of the target antibiotics happens. The HMN‐Flex performance is validated ex vivo using skin models as well as in vivo in live rat animal models. Data is leveraged from the HMN‐Flex system to construct pharmacokinetic profiles for VAN and GEN and compare these profiles with conventional blood‐based measurements. Additionally, to track pH and monitor patient's response during antibiotic treatment, an HMN is developed that employs a colorimetric method to detect changes in the pH, named HMN‐pH assay, whose performance has been validated both in vitro and in vivo. Further, multiplexed antibiotic and pH detection is achieved by simultaneously employing the HMN‐pH and HMN‐Flex on live animals.