Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing with Magnetic Fluorescent Particles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current antibiotic susceptibility tests are time-consuming, require expensive equipment, and professional expertise, limiting their accessibility and efficiency in determining bacterial tolerance or susceptibility to antibiotics.
Innovation Solution
An automated method and apparatus using magnetic and fluorescent particles to cultivate, preprocess, and analyze bacterial samples, allowing for rapid determination of antibiotic susceptibility through fluorescent imaging, which reduces the need for professional labor and shortens testing time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If traditional absorbance-based antibiotic susceptibility testing is used, then the test can be performed with simple equipment, but the testing time exceeds one day
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses fluorescent particles that emit light at specific wavelengths when excited, creating optical signals that change based on bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics. This fluorescent color change mechanism enables rapid detection within hours rather than days, resolving the time-complexity contradiction by providing quick results through optical property changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical/optical absorbance measurement systems with a fluorescent detection system using excitation and emission wavelength filters. This substitution enables faster signal acquisition and processing, reducing testing time from over one day to several hours while maintaining equipment accessibility.
2Loss of time
If polymerase chain reaction method is used to test susceptibility quickly, then the testing time is reduced, but expensive equipment and professional workers are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses disposable fluorescent particles and magnetic particles that can be discarded after a single use, eliminating the need for expensive reusable equipment like PCR machines. This approach provides rapid testing results while using inexpensive, single-use consumables, resolving the contradiction between speed and cost/complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the detection parameter from genetic amplification (PCR) to fluorescent optical signal detection. This parameter change enables rapid susceptibility testing using simple optical filters and light sources instead of complex thermal cycling equipment, achieving both speed and simplicity.
3Measurement precision
If fluorescent particles are used for rapid susceptibility testing, then the testing accuracy is improved, but the device complexity increases due to additional processing steps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces magnetic particles as an intermediary that binds to fluorescent particles and bacteria, enabling easy manipulation and separation of the fluorescent-bacteria complexes. This intermediary mechanism simplifies the overall process by allowing magnetic separation to concentrate signals and reduce background noise, improving measurement precision without requiring complex processing equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple functions into a single fluorescent particle system: bacterial binding, fluorescent signaling, and magnetic responsiveness. This consolidation enables rapid susceptibility testing with high precision while reducing the number of separate processing steps and equipment needed, as one reagent system performs multiple functions simultaneously.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The method and apparatus enable quick and accurate determination of antibiotic susceptibility at the cellular level, providing rapid results and high efficiency, while replacing the need for professional manpower, and allowing for precise microorganism identification.
Implementation Method 1
receiving the sample solution, which has been cultivated in the cultivating step, into a plurality of preprocessing wells each including magnetic particles and fluorescent particles that bond to one or more kinds of bacteria
Implementation Method 2
an imaging step of taking fluorescent images of the image wells washed in the washing step
Implementation Method 3
receiving the sample solution, which has undergone the preprocessing step, into a plurality of image wells having magnetic members thereunder such that the magnetic particles bonding to the bacteria are arranged on the bottoms of the image wells
Data Source
AI summary
A method of testing an antibiotic susceptibility includes dispensing and cultivating sample solution into culture wells including one or more comparative wells and a plurality of antibiotic wells receiving two or more kinds of antibiotics, respectively, receiving the sample solution into a plurality of preprocessing wells each including magnetic particles and fluorescent particles that bond to one or more kinds of bacteria such that the bacteria and the magnetic particles and fluorescent particles bond to each other, receiving the sample solution into a plurality of image wells having magnetic members thereunder such that the magnetic particles bonding to the bacteria are arranged on the bottoms of the image wells, removing the sample solution from the image wells that have undergone the planarizing step, taking fluorescent images of the image wells washed in the washing step, and determining an antibiotic tolerance/susceptibility of the sample solution by analyzing the fluorescent images.