Specific FRET Probe-Based Antibacterial Susceptibility Testing (SF-AST) by Detection of Micrococcal Nuclease Activity.

In this study, we describe a simple and rapid antibacterial susceptibility testing (AST) method for called specific fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) probe-based AST (SF-AST), which is based on an specific FRET probe (SF probe) that detects micrococcal nuclease (MNase) activity secreted from . The SF-AST was tested with an quality control (QC) strain against six relevant antibiotics, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values obtained with the broth microdilution (BMD) method were compared, as a gold standard AST. Results were obtained with high accuracy in 4-6 h. The MIC for the methicillin resistance using 20 clinical isolates of SF-AST showed 100% sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value, as compared to BMD. Thus, the SF-AST method is a simple, rapid, and useful antibiotic resistance test for , and it provides a basis for clinical treatment in a short time.