Comparison of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Test Results of Disk Diffusion, Gradient Strip, and Automated Dilution with Broth Microdilution for Piperacillin-Tazobactam

Electrokinetics in antimicrobial resistance analysis: A review

Infections caused by antimicrobial resistance are a serious problem in the world. Currently, commercial devices for antimicrobial susceptibility testing and resistant bacteria identification are time-consuming. There is an urgent need to develop fast and accurate methods, especially in the process of sample pretreatment. Electrokinetic (EK) is a family of electric-field-based kinetic phenomena of fluid or embedded objects, and EK applications have been found in various fields. In this paper, EK bacteria manipulation, including enrichment and separation, is reviewed. Focus is given to the rapid electric-based minimum inhibitory concentration measurement. The future directions and major challenges in this field are also outlined.

Comparative Proteomics Demonstrates Altered Metabolism Pathways in Cotrimoxazole- Resistant and Amikacin-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates

Antibiotic resistance (AMR) has always been a hot topic all over the world and its mechanisms are varied and complicated. Previous evidence revealed the metabolic slowdown in resistant bacteria, suggesting the important role of metabolism in antibiotic resistance. However, the molecular mechanism of reduced metabolism remains poorly understood, which inspires us to explore the global proteome change during antibiotic resistance. Here, the sensitive, cotrimoxazole-resistant, amikacin-resistant, and amikacin/cotrimoxazole -both-resistant KPN clinical isolates were collected and subjected to proteome analysis through liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). A deep coverage of 2,266 proteins were successfully identified and quantified in total, representing the most comprehensive protein quantification data by now. Further bioinformatic analysis showed down-regulation of tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) pathway and up-regulation of alcohol metabolic or glutathione metabolism processes, which may contribute to ROS clearance and cell survival, in drug-resistant isolates. These results indicated that metabolic pathway alteration was directly correlated with antibiotic resistance, which could promote the development of antibacterial drugs from “target” to “network.” Moreover, combined with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of cotrimoxazole and amikacin on different KPN isolates, we identified nine proteins, including garK, uxaC, exuT, hpaB, fhuA, KPN_01492, fumA, hisC, and aroE, which might contribute mostly to the survival of KPN under drug pressure. In sum, our findings provided novel, non-antibiotic-based therapeutics against resistant KPN.