Abstract
Rapid detection of Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is important for monitoring the presence of these bacteria in water sources and preventing the transmission of the Legionnaires’ disease. We report improved biosensing of L. pneumophila with a digital photocorrosion (DIP) biosensor functionalized with an innovative structure of cysteine-modified warnericin antimicrobial peptides for capturing bacteria that are subsequently decorated with anti-L. pneumophila polyclonal antibodies (pAbs). The application of peptides for the operation of a biosensing device was enabled by the higher bacterial-capture efficiency of peptides compared to other traditional ligands, such as those based on antibodies or aptamers. At the same time, the significantly stronger affinity of pAbs decorating the L. pneumophila serogroup-1 (SG-1) compared to serogroup-5 (SG-5) allowed for the selective detection of L. pneumophila SG-1 at 50 CFU/mL. The results suggest that the attractive sensitivity of the investigated sandwich method is related to the flow of an extra electric charge between the pAb and a charge-sensing DIP biosensor. The method has the potential to offer highly specific and sensitive detection of L. pneumophila as well as other pathogenic bacteria and viruses.
Highlights
Rapid detection of pathogenic Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) in water environments is a key challenge in preventing related illness outbreaks [1,2]
We have investigated an innovative concept of an antimicrobial peptides (AMPs)–polyclonal antibodies (pAbs)-sandwich architecture for the construction of a digital photocorrosion (DIP) GaAs/AlGaAs biosensor and selective detection of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 (SG1) and SG5
The biosensor was first functionalized with Cys-AMPs and incubated with L. pneumophila
Summary
Rapid detection of pathogenic Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) in water environments is a key challenge in preventing related illness outbreaks [1,2]. Culture-based methods are widely used and considered gold standard techniques for detecting pathogenic L. pneumophila [3]. These approaches are both labor intensive and time consuming [4], typically taking up to ~10 days to quantify growing bacterial colonies [5]. Other techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) spectroscopy provide accurate and relatively fast detection [6]. Research interests have been directed to avail cost effective, fast, portable, and less labor-intensive tools for detecting L. pneumophila [2,8,9]
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