NMR spectrometric assay for determining enzymatic hydrolysis of β-lactam antibiotics with bacteria in aqueous solution

Abstract

An application of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer for the measurement of β‐lactamase activity in clinical material containing bacteria is presented. By means of proton (1H)‐NMR, it was easy to measure quantitatively β‐lactamase activity in human bacteriuria, without performing any such pretreatment as isolation of bacteria or extraction of crude enzymes and without preparing special reagents for the detection. This is the first report on the application of 1H‐NMR analysis of structural changes for determining hydrolysis of β‐lactam antibiotics with β‐lactamase‐producing bacteria in aqueous solution.