Infectious outbreaks caused by pathogenic bacteria are still occurring worldwide and cause acute illnesses and significant industrial impact. In this work, for the first time, we demonstrated a platform that uses aptameric DNA sequences, covalently conjugated to a 4-Aminothiophenol-Gold nanoparticles complex, for the sensitive and highly specific detection of pathogenic bacteria. Low concentrations of E. coli O157:H7 were detected (~102 CFU/mL) within 15 minutes in both pure culture and ground beef samples. A strong linear correlation between Raman signal intensity with increasing concentrations of bacteria (102 to 106 CFU/mL) (r2=0,995) was demonstrated. Specificity was tested vs. Listeria monocytogenes (106 CFU/mL), demonstrating that there is not a significant difference (p = 0.786) between the control samples and the interferent bacteria cells. This approach may potentially be applied simultaneously to different pathogenic bacteria in a multiplexed fashion employing unique Raman probes and strain-specific aptamer sequences.

Aptamer-based rapid whole cell detection and quantification of pathogens

2019 Spring National Meeting

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