Fluorescence-Based Rapid Detection of Microbiological Contaminants in Water Samples

Microbiological contamination of process waters is a current issue for pharmaceutical industries. Traditional methods require several days to obtain results; therefore, rapid microbiological methods are widely requested to shorten time-to-result. Milliflex Quantum was developed for the rapid detecti...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hervé Meder, Anne Baumstummler, Renaud Chollet, Sophie Barrier, Monika Kukuczka, Frédéric Olivieri, Esther Welterlin, Vincent Beguin, Sébastien Ribault
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2012-01-01
Series:The Scientific World Journal
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/234858
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Summary:Microbiological contamination of process waters is a current issue for pharmaceutical industries. Traditional methods require several days to obtain results; therefore, rapid microbiological methods are widely requested to shorten time-to-result. Milliflex Quantum was developed for the rapid detection and enumeration of microorganisms in filterable samples. It combines membrane filtration to universal fluorescent staining of viable microorganisms. This new alternative method was validated using European and United States Pharmacopeia definitions, with sterile water and/or sterile water artificially contaminated with microorganisms. The Milliflex Quantum method was demonstrated to be reliable, robust, specific, accurate, and linear over the whole range of assays following these guidelines. The Milliflex Quantum system was challenged to detect natural contaminants in different types of pharmaceutical purified process waters. Milliflex Quantum was demonstrated to detect accurately contaminants 3- to 7-fold faster than traditional membrane filtration method. The staining procedure is nondestructive allowing downstream identification following a positive result. The Milliflex Quantum offers a fast, sensitive, and robust alternative to the compendial membrane filtration method.
ISSN:1537-744X