New approach for drug susceptibility testing: monitoring the stress response of mycobacteria.

Methods currently used for in vitro drug susceptibility testing are based on the assessment of bacterial growth-related processes. This reliance on cellular reproduction leads to prolonged incubation times, particularly for slowly growing organisms such as mycobacteria. A new rapid phenotypic method for the drug susceptibility testing of mycobacteria is described. The method is based on the detection of the physiological stress developed by susceptible mycobacterial cells in the presence of an antimicrobial compound. The induced stress was quantified by differential monitoring of the dielectric properties of the bacterial suspension, an easily measurable electronic property. The data presented here characterize the stress developed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells treated with rifampin (rifampicin), isoniazid, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide. Changes in the dielectric-based profiles of the drug-treated bacteria revealed the respective susceptibilities in near real time, and the susceptibilities were well correlated with conventional susceptibility test data.