Raman spectroscopy towards clinical application: drug monitoring and pathogen identification

Ute Neugebauer; Petra Rösch; Jürgen Popp

doi:10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2015.10.014

Raman spectroscopy towards clinical application: drug monitoring and pathogen identification

Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2015 Dec:46 Suppl 1:S35-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2015.10.014. Epub 2015 Nov 6.

Authors

Ute Neugebauer¹, Petra Rösch², Jürgen Popp³

Affiliations

¹ Center for Sepsis Control and Care (CSCC), Jena University Hospital, Erlanger Allee 101, D-07747 Jena, Germany; Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Albert-Einstein-Straße 9, D-07745 Jena, Germany; InfectoGnostics Forschungscampus Jena, Philosophenweg 7, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
² InfectoGnostics Forschungscampus Jena, Philosophenweg 7, D-07743 Jena, Germany; Institute of Physical Chemistry and Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
³ Center for Sepsis Control and Care (CSCC), Jena University Hospital, Erlanger Allee 101, D-07747 Jena, Germany; Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Albert-Einstein-Straße 9, D-07745 Jena, Germany; InfectoGnostics Forschungscampus Jena, Philosophenweg 7, D-07743 Jena, Germany; Institute of Physical Chemistry and Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, D-07743 Jena, Germany. Electronic address: juergen.popp@uni-jena.de.

PMID: 26612228
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2015.10.014

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy is a label-free method that measures quickly and contactlessly, providing detailed information from the sample, and has proved to be an ideal tool for medical and life science research. In this review, recent advances of the technique towards drug monitoring and pathogen identification by the Jena Research Groups are reviewed. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy in hollow-core optical fibres enable the detection of drugs at low concentrations as shown for the metabolites of the immunosuppressive drug 6-mercaptopurine as well as antimalarial agents. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy can be used to characterise pathogenic bacteria in infectious diseases directly from body fluids, making time-consuming cultivation processes dispensable. Using the example of urinary tract infection, it is shown how bacteria can be identified from patients' urine samples within <1 h. The methods cover both single-cell analysis and dielectrophoretic capturing of bacteria in suspension. The latter method could also be used for fast (<3.5 h) identification of antibiotic resistance as shown exemplarily for vancomycin-resistant enterococci.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Fibre-enhanced Raman spectroscopy; Infection detection; Lab-on-a-chip (LOC); Raman spectroscopy; Therapeutic drug monitoring.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Communicable Diseases / diagnosis*
Communicable Diseases / drug therapy*
Diagnostic Tests, Routine / methods*
Drug Monitoring / methods*
Humans
Microbiological Techniques / methods*
Spectrum Analysis, Raman / methods*