Real-time Assessment of Antimicrobial Concentrations for Personalized Treatment of Infectious Diseases

Antimicrobials typically have narrow windows of safe and effective concentrations. To maintain the correct dose in a patient over time, the level of antimicrobial in the patient’s blood must be monitored, but there is currently no portable point-of-care device for this purpose. In this Phase II proposal, Nano Terra proposes to further develop and scale up a point-of-care antimicrobial sensor platform, using the approach proven in our Phase I work. This portable electrochemical sensor, based on structure-switching aptamers, will allow real-time monitoring of antimicrobials from a droplet of the patient’s blood, either from a finger prick or from venipuncture. In Phase I, we have demonstrated a prototype capable of detecting gentamicin in the therapeutic window using 50 µL of whole blood, and have isolated aptamers for all five targets using Capture-SELEX. In Phase II we will optimize sensor strips for all five antimicrobial targets, and develop an advanced prototype of the handheld reader which is simple to use, portable, and rechargeable. Following in-depth in vitro testing, we will validate the sensor performance in vivo using a Sprague Dawley Rat model. By the end of Phase II, the developed antimicrobial sensor will be ready for FDA-approved preclinical and clinical testing.