Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the largest global health threat in the 21st century and it requires urgent measures. Major reasons behind the emergence of AMR - misusing and overusing different antibacterial agents in healthcare settings [1]. One of the steps in limiting the spread of AMR is accurate diagnostics of the disease and prescription of effective antibiotics. Currently applied diagnostic methods include phenotyping, biochemical, and genotyping methods which tend to be expensive and protractive. Immunodetection, on the other hand, is a rapid, specific, and sensitive method for identifying resistance factors. However, the lack of highly specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) limits the development of immunodiagnostic tests.
The aim of this study was to generate and characterize MAbs against five antibiotic resistance factors – β-lactamases OXA-48, OXA-134, SHV-42, ADC-144, and SME-3, which are widespread in pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae and confer resistance to carbapenems, penams and cephalosporins [2,3,4]. Using hybridoma technology three specific anti-OXA-48, three specific anti-OXA-134, two specific anti-SHV-42, two specific anti-ADC-144, and three specific anti-SME-3 MAbs secreting cell lines were developed. Ten out of thirteen generated MAbs were shown to have high affinity towards respective antigens and twelve recognize linear epitopes. One anti-OXA-134, one anti-SME-3, and one anti-ADC-144 monoclonal antibody pair were shown to have the potential to be applied in the development of antibiotic resistance factors detection tools.