Issue 15, 2020

Single-cell microfluidics facilitates the rapid quantification of antibiotic accumulation in Gram-negative bacteria

Abstract

The double-membrane cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria is a formidable barrier to intracellular antibiotic accumulation. A quantitative understanding of antibiotic transport in these cells is crucial for drug development, but this has proved elusive due to a dearth of suitable investigative techniques. Here we combine microfluidics and time-lapse auto-fluorescence microscopy to rapidly quantify antibiotic accumulation in hundreds of individual Escherichia coli cells. By serially manipulating the microfluidic environment, we demonstrated that stationary phase Escherichia coli, traditionally more refractory to antibiotics than growing cells, display reduced accumulation of the antibiotic ofloxacin compared to actively growing cells. Our novel microfluidic method facilitates the quantitative comparison of the role of the microenvironment versus that of the absence of key membrane transport pathways in cellular drug accumulation. Unlike traditional techniques, our assay is rapid, studying accumulation as the cells are dosed with the drug. This platform provides a powerful new tool for studying antibiotic accumulation in bacteria, which will be critical for the rational development of the next generation of antibiotics.

Graphical abstract: Single-cell microfluidics facilitates the rapid quantification of antibiotic accumulation in Gram-negative bacteria

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Mar 2020
Accepted
15 Jun 2020
First published
16 Jun 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Lab Chip, 2020,20, 2765-2775

Single-cell microfluidics facilitates the rapid quantification of antibiotic accumulation in Gram-negative bacteria

J. Cama, M. Voliotis, J. Metz, A. Smith, J. Iannucci, U. F. Keyser, K. Tsaneva-Atanasova and S. Pagliara, Lab Chip, 2020, 20, 2765 DOI: 10.1039/D0LC00242A

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