Rapid Raman spectroscopy-based test for antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top global health threats. In 2019, AMR was associated with 4.95 million deaths, of which 1.97 million were caused by drug-resistant infections directly. The main subset of AMR is antibiotic resistance, that is, the resistance of bacteria to antibiotic treatment. Traditional and most commonly used antibiotic susceptibility tests are based on the detection of bacterial growth and its inhibition in the presence of an antimicrobial. These tests typically take over 1–2 days to perform, so empirical therapy schemes are often administered before proper testing. Rapid tests for AMR are necessary to optimize the treatment of bacterial infection. Here, we combine the MTT test with Raman spectroscopy to provide a 1.5 h long test for minimal inhibitory concentration determination. Several Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains were tested with three types of antibiotics, including ampicillin from penicillin family, kanamycin from aminoglycoside family and levofloxacin from fluoroquinolone family. The test provided the same minimal inhibitory concentrations as traditional Etest confirming its robustness.