Nanomechanical Sensors as a Tool for Bacteria Detection and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

Ferran Pujol-Vila,Mar Alvarez,Rosa Villa

doi:10.3389/fmech.2020.00044

Abstract

Nanomechanical biosensors refers to a subfamily of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) consisting in movable suspended microstructures, able to convert biological processes into measurable mechanical motion. Owing to this, nanomechanical biosensors have become a promising technology in the way to detect and manage bacterial pathogens with improved effectiveness. The precise treatment of an infection relies on its early diagnosis; however, the current standard culture-based methods for bacteria detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing involve long protocols and are labor intensive. Thanks to its high sensitivity, fast response, and high throughput capability, the nanomechanical technology holds great potential for overcoming some of the limitations of conventional methods. This review aims to provide a perspective of the diverse transducer structures, working principles and detection strategies of nanomechanical sensors for bacteria detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Their performance in terms of sensitivity and operation time is compared with standard methods currently used in clinical microbiology laboratories. Besides, commercial systems already developed and challenges in the way to reach real sensing application beyond the research environment are discussed.

Highlights

In the last years, micro- and nanotechnologies have gained interest and been positioned in the forefront in the fight against bacterial pathogens
Nanomechanical sensors have emerged as Nanomechanical Sensors for Bacterial Applications highly sensitive and versatile tools for label-free biosensing in real time (Arlett et al, 2011)
Since the first microcantilever biosensor based on DNA hybridization and antigen-antibody binding was reported in 2000 (Fritz, 2000), many researchers have stressed this concept using a variety of suspended mechanical structures for the quantification of a plethora of analytes, e.g., DNA, proteins, viruses, and cells

Summary

Introduction

Micro- and nanotechnologies have gained interest and been positioned in the forefront in the fight against bacterial pathogens. Several recent publications review the current advances in analytical and emerging technologies for bacteria identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) (Longo and Kasas, 2014; Li et al, 2017; Syal et al, 2017a; Leonard et al, 2018; Behera et al, 2019; Shin et al, 2019). Nanomechanical sensors have emerged as Nanomechanical Sensors for Bacterial Applications highly sensitive and versatile tools for label-free biosensing in real time (Arlett et al, 2011). These sensors evolved from the probes used in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and reach today unprecedented performances (e.g., sensitivity, time response, or integration) thanks to the advances in microand nanofabrication technologies. Sensitivity ranges in the order of picomolar concentration, attogram, and single-cell levels highlight the excellent sensitivity of these systems (Alvarez and Lechuga, 2010; Arlett et al, 2011; Tamayo et al, 2013)

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