We developed portable, paper-based culture devices for bacterial culture: gas-permeable membranes (PDMS) supplied a flow of oxygen, paper-pad acted as media reservoirs, patterned papers defined culture zones, and tape sealed devices, which were autoclavable. Our group previously demonstrated their performance for bacterial culture and environment sampling.<i> We adapted them for antimicrobial susceptibility tests (AST) by adding two reservoirs for antibiotics in the culture zone. AST in portable culture devices was evaluated with different concentrations of E. coli k12 tested against kanamycin and tetracycline, and compared with standard disk diffusion tests on agar plates. Culture media was added in the media reservoir (Figure1A) before autoclaving the devices. PrestoBlue�, a blue dye allowing the detection of viable cells by turning pink, was added in the culture zone (Figure1B), before inoculation with a sample (Figure1C), and overnight incubation. Susceptibility to an antibiotic was determined by the area of the blue region around an antibiotic-impregnated reservoir (Figure1E). We also tested the platform with pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella typhimuriumLT2). Devices can be stored with reagents into moisture-impermeable bags at room temperature. These simple, disposable, portable culture devices can be used in low-resource settings to determine the susceptibility or resistance of certain bacteria in biological fluids, environmental or food-borne samples to specific antibiotics, and thus guide towards a potential treatment.<i> Funes-Huacca, M.E., et al. Lab on a Chip  , 2012, 12  , 4269-4278.

Portable paper-based culture devices for antimicrobial susceptibility testing in remote settings

246th National Meeting (2013)

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