TY  - JOUR
A1  - Steppert, Isabel
A1  - Schönfelder, Jessy
A1  - Schultz, Carolyn
A1  - Kuhlmeier, Dirk
T1  - Rapid in vitro differentiation of bacteria by ion mobility spectrometry
JF  - Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
N2  - Rapid screening of infected people plays a crucial role in interrupting infection chains. However, the current methods for identification of bacteria are very tedious and labor intense. Fast on-site screening for pathogens based on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) could help to differentiate between healthy and potentially infected subjects. As a first step towards this, the feasibility of differentiating between seven different bacteria including resistant strains was assessed using IMS coupled to multicapillary columns (MCC-IMS). The headspace above bacterial cultures was directly drawn and analyzed by MCC-IMS after 90 min of incubation. A cluster analysis software and statistical methods were applied to select discriminative VOC clusters. As a result, 63 VOC clusters were identified, enabling the differentiation between all investigated bacterial strains using canonical discriminant analysis. These 63 clusters were reduced to 7 discriminative VOC clusters by constructing a hierarchical classification tree. Using this tree, all bacteria including resistant strains could be classified with an AUC of 1.0 by receiver-operating characteristic analysis. In conclusion, MCC-IMS is able to differentiate the tested bacterial species, even the non-resistant and their corresponding resistant strains, based on VOC patterns after 90 min of cultivation. Although this result is very promising, in vivo studies need to be performed to investigate if this technology is able to also classify clinical samples. With a short analysis time of 5 min, MCC-IMS is quite attractive for a rapid screening for possible infections in various locations from hospitals to airports. Key Points center dot Differentiation of bacteria by MCC-IMS is shown after 90-min cultivation. center dot Non-resistant and resistant strains can be distinguished. center dot Classification of bacteria is possible based on metabolic features.
KW  - Bacteria identification
KW  - Volatile organic compounds (VOC)
KW  - Ion mobility
KW  - spectrometry (IMS)
KW  - Antibiotic resistance
KW  - Infection
KW  - Diagnostic
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11315-w
SN  - 0175-7598
SN  - 1432-0614
VL  - 105
IS  - 10
SP  - 4297
EP  - 4307
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -