RNA markers for antibiotic susceptibility in Neisseria gonorrhoeae

The rise of antibiotic-resistant pathogens can be contributed to the lack of a rapid diagnostic method through pathogen identification or antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), resulting in a delayed therapeutic decision at the point of care. A fast-diagnostic approach is specifically more desirable for slow-growing organisms such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Therefore, in this study, we present a rapid AST platform using RNA signatures for Neisseria gonorrhoeae. RNA-seq followed by bioinformatic tools were applied to explore potential markers in the transcriptome profile of Neisseria gonorrhoeae upon minutes of azithromycin exposure. Further validation on more clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae confirmed the ability of selected markers to be implemented as a novel and accurate molecular AST in clinical microbiological practices.