Anidulafungin Susceptibility Testing of Candida glabrata Isolates from Blood Cultures by the MALDI Biotyper Antibiotic (Antifungal) Susceptibility Test Rapid Assay

Echinocandins are the recommended first-line antifungals for treatment of invasive candidiasis. The increasing number of Candida glabrata strains resistant against echinocandins is an emerging health care concern. The rapid detection of resistant C. glabrata isolates is an urgent requirement for clinical laboratories. In this study, we developed the MALDI Biotyper antibiotic (antifungal) susceptibility test rapid assay (MBT ASTRA) for the rapid detection of anidulafungin-resistant C. glabrata isolates directly from positive blood cultures. Of 100 C. glabrata strains, MBT ASTRA classified 69 as susceptible and 29 as resistant. Microdilution assays performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines, used as a standard reference, identified 65 susceptible, 9 intermediate, and 26 resistant isolates. Sequencing of hot spot 1 and hot spot 2 regions of the FKS1 and FKS2 genes classified 86 susceptible and 14 resistant isolates. The MBT ASTRA had sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 95%, respectively, compared to the microdilution method. Positive and negative agreement of MBT ASTRA was calculated at 100% and 80%, respectively, compared with the molecular sequencing approach. Together, these results revealed a high accuracy of MBT ASTRA compared to microdilution according to the CLSI and PCR analysis, resulting in a categorical agreement of 90% and 83%, respectively. The validity of MBT ASTRA was 98%. Importantly, MBT ASTRA provided antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) within 6 h that was both accurate and reliable compared to the other two approaches, which require at least 24 h or are costly. Therefore, this method has the potential to facilitate clinical AFST rapidly at low sample costs for clinical labs already equipped with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS).