Abstract
The urgent need to develop a detection system for Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most common causes of infection, is prompting research towards novel approaches and devices, with a particular focus on point-of-care analysis. Biosensors are promising systems to achieve this aim. We coupled the selectivity and affinity of aptamers, short nucleic acids sequences able to recognize specific epitopes on bacterial surface, immobilized at high density on a nanostructured zirconium dioxide surface, with the rational design of specifically interacting fluorescent peptides to assemble an easy-to-use detection device. We show that the displacement of fluorescent peptides upon the competitive binding of S. aureus to immobilized aptamers can be detected and quantified through fluorescence loss. This approach could be also applied to the detection of other bacterial species once aptamers interacting with specific antigens will be identified, allowing the development of a platform for easy detection of a pathogen without requiring access to a healthcare environment.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus, a common commensal of skin and nares, is one of the most frequent causes of infections [1,2], one of the five most common causes of infections after injury or surgery
We demonstrated that the rational design of a peptide able to interact with a nucleotide sequence
We demonstrated rational design of a peptide able to interact with a nucleotide sequence of a biosensor
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus, a common commensal of skin and nares, is one of the most frequent causes of infections [1,2], one of the five most common causes of infections after injury or surgery It has become the second major bacterium in food poisoning since it is able to produce heat-resistant toxins [3]. Antibiotic-resistant strains of S. aureus (e.g., methicillin-resistant staphylococci) appeared in clinical settings such as in hospitals, and in whole communities [4]. These premises make the development of rapid and reliable methods to identify S. aureus in biological samples as well as in food an urgent need to avoid epidemics. Conventional methods to detect S. aureus, such as cell cultures, require more than one day and cannot distinguish among strains belonging to other species such as S. intermedius, S. caprae, S. simulans and
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