Richter-Dahlfors Agneta, Kärkkäinen Elina, Choong Ferdinand X
AIMES - Center for the Advancement of Integrated Medical and Engineering Sciences at Karolinska Institutet and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2023 Sep 5;24(1):2246867. doi: 10.1080/14686996.2023.2246867. eCollection 2023.
Effective treatment of bacterial infections requires methods that accurately and quickly identify which antibiotic should be prescribed. This review describes recent research on the development of optotracing methodologies for bacterial and biofilm detection and diagnostics. Optotracers are small, chemically well-defined, anionic fluorescent tracer molecules that detect peptide- and carbohydrate-based biopolymers. This class of organic molecules (luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes) show unique electronic, electrochemical and optical properties originating from the conjugated structure of the compounds. The photophysical properties are further improved as donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D)-type motifs are incorporated in the conjugated backbone. Optotracers bind their biopolymeric target molecules via electrostatic interactions. Binding alters the optical properties of these tracer molecules, shown as altered absorption and emission spectra, as well as ON-like switch of fluorescence. As the optotracer provides a defined spectral signature for each binding partner, a fingerprint is generated that can be used for identification of the target biopolymer. Alongside their use for experimentation, optotracers have demonstrated excellent use in studies of a number of clinically relevant microbial pathogens. These methods will find widespread use across a variety of communities engaged in reducing the effect of antibiotic resistance. This includes basic researchers studying molecular resistance mechanisms, academia and pharma developing new antimicrobials targeting biofilm infections and tests to diagnose biofilm infections, as well as those developing antibiotic susceptibility tests for biofilm infections (biofilm-AST). By iterating between the microbial world and that of plants, development of the optotracing technology has become a prime example of successful cross-feeding across the boundaries of disciplines. As optotracers offers a capacity to redefine the way we work with polysaccharides in the microbial world as well as with plant biomass, the technology is providing novel outputs desperately needed for global impact of the threat of antimicrobial resistance as well as our strive for a circular bioeconomy.
有效治疗细菌感染需要能够准确快速确定应开具何种抗生素的方法。本综述描述了用于细菌和生物膜检测与诊断的光追踪方法的最新研究进展。光示踪剂是一类化学性质明确的小型阴离子荧光示踪分子，可检测基于肽和碳水化合物的生物聚合物。这类有机分子（发光共轭低聚噻吩）具有源自化合物共轭结构的独特电子、电化学和光学性质。当给体-受体-给体（D-A-D）型基序并入共轭主链时，光物理性质会进一步改善。光示踪剂通过静电相互作用与它们的生物聚合物靶分子结合。结合会改变这些示踪分子的光学性质，表现为吸收光谱和发射光谱的改变以及荧光的类似开启的切换。由于光示踪剂为每个结合伙伴提供了明确的光谱特征，因此会生成一个指纹图谱，可用于识别靶生物聚合物。除了用于实验外，光示踪剂在许多临床相关微生物病原体的研究中也表现出色。这些方法将在致力于降低抗生素耐药性影响的各个领域得到广泛应用。这包括研究分子耐药机制的基础研究人员、开发针对生物膜感染的新型抗菌药物和诊断生物膜感染的检测方法的学术界和制药公司，以及开发生物膜感染抗生素敏感性试验（biofilm-AST）的人员。通过在微生物世界和植物世界之间反复探索，光追踪技术的发展已成为跨学科成功交叉借鉴的典范。由于光示踪剂能够重新定义我们在微生物世界中处理多糖以及植物生物质的方式，该技术正在提供对抗菌药物耐药性威胁产生全球影响以及我们追求循环生物经济迫切需要的新成果。
