Electrochemical Detection of Tobramycin Resistance in Escherichia Coli

The development of techniques to detect the presence of resistance in pathogens are urgently needed to face the deadly spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. The present work presents the electroanalytical quantification of tobramycin (TOB) retention in susceptible and resistant bacterial strains of Escherichia coli . The electrochemical characterization of TOB demonstrates the suitability of electrochemistry for drug detection. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) parameters were optimized by full factor experimental designs, which increased two-times the electrochemical current response, improving the overall sensitivity of the method. The developed assay was able to differentiate between resistant and susceptible E. coli strains within 15 min. The demonstrated methodology is expected to be applicable to both drug efflux-mediated and drug uptake inhibition-mediated resistant bacteria. Because these two mechanisms represent the most predominant reasons for drug resistance in bacteria, the reported method has a strong potential to be a reliable, fast, and cost-efficient alternative for antibiotic resistance detection.