A magnetic epitope-imprinted microsphere used for selective separation and rapid detection of SHV-type β-lactamases in bacteria: a novel strategy of antimicrobial resistance detection

The production of β-lactamases is the most prevalent resistance mechanism for β-lactam antibiotics in Gram-negative bacteria. Presently, over 4900 β-lactamases have been discovered, and they are categorized into hundreds of families. In each enzyme family, amino acid substitutions result in subtle changes to enzyme hydrolysis profiles; in contrast, certain conserved sequences retained by all of the family members can serve as important markers for enzyme family identification.

The SHV family was chosen as the study object. First, a unique 10-mer peptide was identified as SHV family's epitope by an approach of protein fingerprint analysis. Then, an SHV-specific magnetic epitope-imprinted gel polymer (MEI-GP) was prepared by an epitope surface imprinting technique, and its sorption behavior and recognition mechanism for template epitope and SHV were both elaborated. Finally, the MEI-GP was successfully applied to selectively extract SHV from bacteria, and the extracted SHV was submitted to MALDI-TOF MS for specific determination. By following this strategy, other β-lactamase families can also be specifically detected. According to the molecular weight displayed in mass spectra, the kind of β-lactamase and its associated hydrolysis profile on β-lactams can be easily identified. Based on this, an initial drug option scheme can be quickly formulated for antimicrobial therapy. From protein extraction to medication guidance reporting, the mean time to detection (MTTD) was less than 2 h, which is much faster than conventional phenotype-based methods (at least 16–20 h) and gene-based techniques (usually about 8 h).

This enzyme-specific detection strategy combined the specificity of epitope imprinting with the sensitivity of mass spectrometry, enabling β-lactamase to be selectively extracted from bacteria and clearly presented in mass spectra. Compared with other drug resistance detection methods, this technique has good specificity, high sensitivity (≤ 15 mg of bacteria), a short MTTD (less than 2 h), and simple operation, and therefore has a broad application prospect in clinical medicine.