Surfactant-enhanced DNA accessibility to nuclease accelerates phenotypic β-lactam antibiotic susceptibility testing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) for Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) is critically needed to counter widespread antibiotic resistance. Detection of nucleic acids in genotypic AST can be rapid, but it has not been successful for β-lactams (the largest antibiotic class used to treat Ng). Rapid phenotypic AST for Ng is challenged by the pathogen’s slow doubling time and the lack of methods to quickly quantify the pathogen’s response to β-lactams. Here, we asked two questions: (1) Is it possible to use nucleic acid quantification to measure the β-lactam susceptibility phenotype of Ng very rapidly, using antibiotic-exposure times much shorter than the 1- to 2-h doubling time of Ng? (2) Would such short-term antibiotic exposures predict the antibiotic resistance profile of Ng measured by plate growth assays over multiple days? To answer these questions, we devised an innovative approach for performing a rapid phenotypic AST that measures DNA accessibility to exogenous nucleases after exposure to β-lactams (termed nuclease-accessibility AST [nuc-aAST]). We showed that DNA in antibiotic-susceptible cells has increased accessibility upon exposure to β-lactams and that a judiciously chosen surfactant permeabilized the outer membrane and enhanced this effect. We tested penicillin, cefixime, and ceftriaxone and found good agreement between the results of the nuc-aAST after 15–30 min of antibiotic exposure and the results of the gold-standard culture-based AST measured over days. These results provide a new pathway toward developing a critically needed phenotypic AST for Ng and additional global-health threats.