Highlights
• Accurate identification of bacterial species (with accuracy up to 98.5%) from gastric mucosa samples based on the fingerprint region of single-cell Raman spectra (SCRS)
• Accurate determination of H. pylori drug resistance from cultured strains and clinical gastric mucosa samples with D2O-probed single-cell Raman spectroscopy technology, based on characteristic C-D peak in SCRS of H. pylori cells incubated with drug and D2O
• Precise capture of single target cells with RACS-Seq®, Raman-activated optical tweezers-based cell sorter. Genome coverage of sorted cells is up to 99.7%, enabling accurate source tracking
• Drug sensitivity measurement with D2O-probed single-cell Raman spectroscopy technology is 2-3 times faster than conventional approaches, and enables combined H. pylori identification and drug sensitivity measurement with significantly less hands-on steps
Abstract
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection shows high infection rates, high disease burden, high resistance rates, and low eradication rates in certain populations. One of the key reasons for the low eradication rate is the wide-spread drug resistance of H. pylori strains. Therefore, it is critical to establish an efficient drug sensitivity measurement and source tracking system for clinical treatment and disease prevention and control. In this study, D2O-probed single-cell Raman spectroscopy technology was used to establish an integrated “pathogen identification – drug sensitivity measurement – source tracing" process for H. pylori diagnosis and treatment. This approach offers advantages including rapid pathogen identification, accurate drug sensitivity phenotype detection, drug resistance mechanism determination by single-cell whole genome analysis, and precise source tracking.