Resistance Testing of Bacteria

The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria have posed a public health threat in recent decades. Drug-resistant bacteria are increasing at an alarming rate and causing serious problems. There is an urgent need to find solutions to combat superbugs. One of the challenges is the need for efficient and portable diagnostic tests for bacterial resistance.

Generation and Transmission of Antibiotic Resistance

The ability of bacteria to survive and grow in the presence of one or more antibiotics is called antibiotic resistance. There are several pathways that lead to the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. First, antibiotic overuse accelerates the selection of resistant bacteria. Second, bacteria can pass on resistance genes via plasmids, so antibiotic resistance can spread easily and quickly among bacteria. In addition, resistance may develop when the genetic material of bacteria is spontaneously altered or mutated. In conclusion, bacteria can acquire more than one type of resistance through different mechanisms and thus become superbugs.

Due to the lack of early identification of antibiotic susceptibility of the causative bacteria, irrational use of antibiotics can dramatically increase resistance. Ace Therapeutics provides different techniques for rapid identification of bacterial resistance to address the requirements and challenges associated with the development of bacterial resistance detection methods.

Our Bacterial Resistance Testing Services

We offer the following platforms of assay technologies. Each of the current assay technologies has its own advantages and disadvantages, and you can choose the applicable assay based on your sample. As well, we strive to meet the demand for drug resistance testing of bacteria and to drive technological change.

Antibiotic Susceptibility Assay

• Antibiotic susceptibility testing can be widely used to determine the antibiotic resistance profile of bacteria. We offer a diverse range of phenotypic methods to detect bacterial antibiotic susceptibility, including disk diffusion test, dilution methods, chromogenic agar media test, etc. As well as we develop innovative resistance diagnostic techniques to address the increasing number of antibiotic resistances.

Resistance Genes Detection

• Genotypic approaches are usually based on the detection of resistance genes and thus provide a rapid, direct and sensitive assessment of resistance. The use of genotypic assays is an effective and direct method to detect pathogen resistance. We offer PCR, DNA microarrays and DNA microarrays as well as other genotyping technologies for the detection of antibiotic resistance genes.

Microfluidic Technology

• Microfluidic technologies may be an alternative to common low-throughput antibiotic resistance tests and may open new avenues for antibiotic resistance studies at the population and single-cell levels. We aim to provide currently implemented or develop emerging microfluidic technologies to rapidly detect antibiotic resistance.

Sample Types

You can collect the samples you are interested in and can collect different kinds of samples for testing. Specifically including those you collect on disease models.

• Bacterial cultures from blood samples
• Bacterial cultures in urine samples
• Bacterial cultures from wounds
• Other cultures

Once the samples are submitted, we will send them to the lab for analysis. This sample will be used to culture bacterial colonies, which will then be treated with different antibiotics.

Reference

1. Frieri M, et al. Antibiotic resistance. Journal of infection and public health, 2017, 10(4): 369-378.