Schematic illustration of the cantilever array to detect antibiotic resistance. (Image: Department of Physics and Nano Imaging Lab, SNI, University of Basel))
Schematic illustration of the cantilever array to detect antibiotic resistance. (Image: Department of Physics and Nano Imaging Lab, SNI, University of Basel)) - Researchers from the University of Basel have developed a sensitive testing system that allows the rapid and reliable detection of resistance in bacteria. The system is based on tiny, functionalized cantilevers that bend due to binding of sample material. In the analyses, the system was able to detect resistance in a sample quantity equivalent to 1-10 bacteria. Bacteria that are no longer susceptible to various antibiotics pose a significant threat to our health. In the event of a bacterial infection, physicians require rapid information about potential resistance so that they can respond quickly and correctly. Cantilever systems as an alternative . Traditional methods for detecting resistance are based on cultivating bacteria and testing their sensitivity to a spectrum of antibiotics. These methods take 48 to 72 hours to deliver results, and some strains of bacteria are difficult to cultivate. Molecular biological tests are a great deal faster and work by amplifying resistance genes or specific short sequences of genetic material by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but even this method doesn't deliver satisfactory results for every bacterium. An alternative comes in the form of methods using tiny cantilevers, which bend when RNA molecules bind to their surface, for example — and this bending can then be detected. RNA molecules are "transcripts?
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