The technological challenges and strategies using electron microscopy in AMR preclinical research towards precision medicine  

Session

Public Health: The Impact of Microscopy

Authors

Dr Ibolya Kepiro (1)

Affiliations

1. Biometrology, National Physical Laboratory

Keywords

AMR, VLPs, electron microscopy, 

Abstract text

According to a recent study reported to GLASS (WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System), the proportion of E. Coli that was resistant to ciprofloxacin, ranged 8.4% to 92.8%. Antibiotic overuse during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of some drug therapy strategies to support the immune system of patients with more severe symptoms to tackle against the SARS-CoV2 infection can further accelerate the antimicrobial resistance of bacterial strains. 

We will present a new concept on the development of engineered virus-like particles (VLPs) and show their characterization by different high-resolution microscopy techniques. The concept holds great promise in future novel therapeutic drug delivery by creating pore-forming peptide VLP motifs with remarkable antibiotic activity clearing “superbugs” without toxicity.  

The antimicrobial activity in this study was conducted in a pre-clinical laboratory setting using the microfluidics technology to monitor the single cellular level response and differentiating the bacterial phenotypes to the VLP treatment. The findings were confirmed by complementary techniques using high-resolution imaging including AFM and electron microscopy. 

The potential of biomimetic VLPs addressing the challenges of antibiotic resistance of bacterial pathogens opens-up a new strategy for precision medicine approaches combining electron microscopy with the micro- and nanofluidics technology. 

References

I Kepiro et al. and MG Ryadnov, "Engineering chirally blind protein pseudocapsids into antibacterial persisters". ACS Nano 14, 1609-1622 (2020)

Y Zhang, I Kepiro, MG Ryadnov, S Pagliara, "Single cell killing kinetics differentiate phenotypic bacterial responses to different antibacterial classes". Microbiol. Spect. 11(1), e03667-22 (2023)