Repository logo
 

Biomimetic Electronic Devices for Measuring Bacterial Membrane Disruption.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Pitsalidis, Charalampos 
Pappa, Anna-Maria 
Porel, Mintu 
Artim, Christine M 
Faria, Gregorio C 

Abstract

Antibiotic discovery has experienced a severe slowdown in terms of discovery of new candidates. In vitro screening methods using phospholipids to model the bacterial membrane provide a route to identify molecules that specifically disrupt bacterial membranes causing cell death. Thanks to the electrically insulating properties of the major component of the cell membrane, phospholipids, electronic devices are highly suitable transducers of membrane disruption. The organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) is a highly sensitive ion-to-electron converter. Here, the OECT is used as a transducer of the permeability of a lipid monolayer (ML) at a liquid:liquid interface, designed to read out changes in ion flux caused by compounds that interact with, and disrupt, lipid assembly. This concept is illustrated using the well-documented antibiotic Polymixin B and the highly sensitive quantitation of permeability of the lipid ML induced by two novel recently described antibacterial amine-based oligothioetheramides is shown, highlighting molecular scale differences in their disruption capabilities. It is anticipated that this platform has the potential to play a role in front-line antimicrobial compound design and characterization thanks to the compatibility of semiconductor microfabrication technology with high-throughput readouts.

Description

Keywords

antibiotics, lipids, membranes, organic bioelectronics, transistors, Biomimetics, Cell Membrane, Phospholipids, Polymyxin B

Journal Title

Adv Mater

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0935-9648
1521-4095

Volume Title

30

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
Marie Curie ITN OrgBIO Project No. 607896 Agence Nationale de la Recherche 3Bs project Stanford-France Center National Science Foundation (Award #DMR 1507826) Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Research Travel Grant (#1016253)