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Digital antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the MilliDrop technology

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European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We present the MilliDrop Analyzer (MDA), a droplet-based millifluidic system for digital antimicrobial susceptibility testing (D-AST), which enables us to determine minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) precisely and accurately. The MilliDrop technology was validated by using resazurin for fluorescence readout, for comparison with standard methodology, and for conducting reproducibility studies. In this first assessment, the susceptibility of a reference Gram-negative strain Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 to gentamicin, chloramphenicol, and nalidixic acid were tested by the MDA, VITEK®2, and broth microdilution as a reference standard. We measured the susceptibility of clinically relevant Gram-positive strains of Staphylococcus aureus to vancomycin, including vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA), heterogeneous vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (hVISA), and vancomycin-susceptible S. aureus (VSSA) strains. The MDA provided results which were much more accurate than those of VITEK®2 and standard broth microdilution. The enhanced accuracy enabled us to reliably discriminate between VSSA and hVISA strains.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the “Investissements d’Avenir” program (reference: ANR-10-NANB-0002-06). bioMérieux provided materials for the study and a post-doctoral grant. The authors are thankful to Alex van Belkum for the stimulating discussions and proofreading.

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Author notes

  1. J. Bibette

    Present address: Laboratoire de Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, ESPCI ParisTech, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005, Paris, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, Institute of Chemistry, Biology and Innovation, ESPCI ParisTech/CNRS UMR 8231/PSL Research University, Paris, France

    L. Jiang, J. Baudry & J. Bibette

  2. MilliDrop Instruments SAS, Paris, France

    L. Boitard

  3. bioMérieux SA, Marcy l’Etoile, France

    P. Broyer, A.-C. Chareire, P. Bourne-Branchu, P. Mahé, M. Tournoud, C. Franceschi & G. Zambardi

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  1. L. Jiang
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Correspondence to J. Bibette.

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Conflict of interest

Patrick Broyer, Anne-Coline Chareire, Pierrot Bourne-Branchu, Pierre Mahé, Maud Tournoud, Christine Franceschi, and Gilles Zambardi are scientists employed by bioMérieux. Laurent Boitard, Jean Baudry, and Jérôme Bibette are founders of MilliDrop Instruments SAS. Lianmei Jiang declares no conflict of interest.

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Jiang, L., Boitard, L., Broyer, P. et al. Digital antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the MilliDrop technology. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 35, 415–422 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2554-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-015-2554-z

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