Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 6;13(1):10930. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38114-9.
A urinary tract infection (UTI) occurs when bacteria enter and multiply in the urinary system. The infection is most often caused by enteric bacteria that normally live in the gut, which include Enterococcus faecium. Without antibiotic treatment, UTIs can progress to life-threatening septic shock. Early diagnosis and identification of the pathogen will reduce antibiotic use and improve patient outcomes. In this work, we develop and optimize a cost-effective and rapid (< 40 min) method for detecting E. faecium in urine. The method uses a fluorescently labelled bacteriocin enterocin K1 (FITC-EntK1) that binds specifically to E. faecium and is then detected using a conventional flow cytometer. Using this detection assay, urine containing E. faecium was identified by an increase in the fluorescent signals by 25-73-fold (median fluorescence intensity) compared to control samples containing Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus. The method presented in this work is a proof of concept showing the potential of bacteriocins to act as specific probes for the detection of specific bacteria, such as pathogens, in biological samples.
尿路感染（UTI）是指细菌进入并在泌尿系统中繁殖。感染通常是由肠道中正常存在的肠细菌引起的，其中包括粪肠球菌。如果没有抗生素治疗，UTI 可能会发展为危及生命的败血症性休克。早期诊断和鉴定病原体将减少抗生素的使用并改善患者的预后。在这项工作中，我们开发并优化了一种经济高效且快速（<40 分钟）的方法，用于检测尿液中的粪肠球菌。该方法使用荧光标记的细菌素肠球菌素 K1（FITC-EntK1），它特异性地与粪肠球菌结合，然后使用常规流式细胞仪进行检测。使用这种检测方法，与含有大肠埃希菌或金黄色葡萄球菌的对照样品相比，含有粪肠球菌的尿液的荧光信号增加了 25-73 倍（荧光强度中位数），从而可以识别出尿液中含有粪肠球菌。本工作中提出的方法是一个概念验证，表明细菌素作为生物样品中特定细菌（如病原体）的特异性探针的潜力。
