Colorimetric Detection of Staphylococcus aureus Contaminated Solutions without Purification

Airborne microbes: sampling, detection, and inactivation

The human living environment serves as a habitat for microorganisms and the presence of ubiquitous airborne microbes significantly impacts the natural material cycle. Through ongoing experimentation with beneficial microorganisms, humans have greatly benefited from airborne microbes. However, airborne pathogens endanger human health and have the potential to induce fatal diseases. Tracking airborne microbes is a critical prerequisite for a better understanding of bioaerosols, harnessing their potential advantages, and mitigating associated risks. Although technological breakthroughs have enabled significant advancements in accurately monitoring airborne pathogens, many puzzles about these microbes remain unanswered due to their high variability and environmental diffusibility. Consequently, advanced techniques and strategies for special identification, early warning, and efficient eradication of microbial contamination are continuously being sought. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the research status of airborne microbes, concentrating on the recent advances and challenges in sampling, detection, and inactivation. Particularly, the fundamental design principles for the collection and timely detection of airborne pathogens are described in detail, as well as critical factors for eliminating microbial contamination and enhancing indoor air quality. In addition, future research directions and perspectives for controlling airborne microbes are also suggested to promote the translation of basic research into real products.

Machine Learning-Based Analytical Systems: Food Forensics

Despite a large amount of money being spent on both food analyses and control measures, various food-borne illnesses associated with pathogens, toxins, pesticides, adulterants, colorants, and other contaminants pose a serious threat to human health, and thus food safety draws considerable attention in the modern pace of the world. The presence of various biogenic amines in processed food have been frequently considered as the primary quality parameter in order to check food freshness and spoilage of protein-rich food. Various conventional detection methods for detecting hazardous analytes including microscopy, nucleic acid, and immunoassay-based techniques have been employed; however, recently, array-based sensing strategies are becoming popular for the development of a highly accurate and precise analytical method. Array-based sensing is majorly facilitated by the advancements in multivariate analytical techniques as well as machine learning-based approaches. These techniques allow one to solve the typical problem associated with the interpretation of the complex response patterns generated in array-based strategies. Consequently, the machine learning-based neural networks enable the fast, robust, and accurate detection of analytes using sensor arrays. Thus, for commercial applications, most of the focus has shifted toward the development of analytical methods based on electrical and chemical sensor arrays. Therefore, herein, we briefly highlight and review the recently reported array-based sensor systems supported by machine learning and multivariate analytics to monitor food safety and quality in the field of food forensics.

Recent advances in airborne pathogen detection using optical and electrochemical biosensors

The world is currently facing an adverse condition due to the pandemic of airborne pathogen SARS-CoV-2. Prevention is better than cure; thus, the rapid detection of airborne pathogens is necessary because it can reduce outbreaks and save many lives. Considering the immense role of diverse detection techniques for airborne pathogens, proper summarization of these techniques would be beneficial for humans. Hence, this review explores and summarizes emerging techniques, such as optical and electrochemical biosensors used for detecting airborne bacteria (Bacillus anthracis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae) and viruses (Influenza A, Avian influenza, Norovirus, and SARS-CoV-2). Significantly, the first section briefly focuses on various diagnostic modalities applied toward airborne pathogen detection. Next, the fabricated optical biosensors using various transducer materials involved in colorimetric and fluorescence strategies for infectious pathogen detection are extensively discussed. The third section is well documented based on electrochemical biosensors for airborne pathogen detection by differential pulse voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry, square-wave voltammetry, amperometry, and impedance spectroscopy. The unique pros and cons of these modalities and their future perspectives are addressed in the fourth and fifth sections. Overall, this review inspected 171 research articles published in the last decade and persuaded the importance of optical and electrochemical biosensors for airborne pathogen detection.

Phage-mimicking nanoagents for rapid depolymerase specificity screening against multidrug resistant bacteria

With the rise of drug resistance, bacteriophages and bacteriophage-derived proteins may become an efficient successor to traditional antibiotics. While the enormous natural diversity of the phages allows matching virtually any bacteria, identification of the potentially life-saving phage is currently a tedious and time-consuming challenge that often cannot be performed within a reasonable time. Here we show a rapid 1-min bacteriophage screening assay based on specially constructed phage-mimicking nanoagents and surface plasmon resonance effect. Within the assay, a panel of phage-mimicking gold nanoparticles, possessing the specificity and enzymatic activity of a particular phage, is mixed with a suspension of the bacteria of interest. The spectral behaviour of the assay mix allows measurement of two critical parameters of the nanoagents and the corresponding bacteriophages: 1) direct assessment of their specificity due to convergence of the particles on the cell walls, and more importantly, 2) real-time evaluation of their enzymatic activity for the destruction of the cell capsule via detection of nanoagent detachment from the surface of bacteria. The proposed assay overcomes the current time limitations of the phage-bacteria matching procedures and thereby can facilitate faster development and adoption of phage-based therapies as a much-needed alternative to traditional antibiotics.

Influence of Gold/Silver Ratio in Ablative Nanoparticles on Their Interaction with Aptamers and Functionality of the Obtained Conjugates

Nano-bio-conjugates, featuring noble metal gold-silver alloy nanoparticles, represent a versatile tool in diagnostics and therapeutics due to their plasmonic and antimicrobial properties tunable by the particle's gold molar fraction. However, little is known about how the binding of thiolated biomolecules to noble metal nanoparticles is influenced by the fraction of gold and silver atoms on the nanoparticle's surface and to which extend this would affect the functionality of the conjugated biomolecules. In this work, we generated gold-silver alloy nanoparticles with average diameters of 7-8 nm using the modern, surfactant-free laser ablation in liquids (LAL) synthesis approach. We conjugated them with thiolated miniStrep aptamer ligands at well-controlled aptamer-to-nanoparticle surface area ratios with maxima between 12 and 27 pmol aptamer/cm2 particle surface area. The results revealed a clear correlation between surface coverage and the nanoparticles' nominal gold/silver ratio, with maximum coverage reached for gold-rich alloys and a pronounced maximum for silver-rich alloys. However, the conjugates' functionality, evaluated by binding of streptavidin, was surprisingly robust and hardly affected by the nominal composition. However, 1.5 times higher surface coverage was needed to obtain maximum functionality in the silver-rich conjugates. Based on these results, it may be concluded that the nominal composition of gold-silver alloy nano-bioconjugates is freely tunable without a pronounced impact on the attached ligands' functionality, a finding highly relevant for the flexible design of nano-bio-conjugates for future biomedical applications. This study's results may facilitate the design of alloy nano-bio-conjugates for future applications in therapeutics and diagnostics.

Oligomer based real-time detection of microorganisms producing nuclease enzymes

In this study, we provide a method using fluorescently labeled oligonucleotides for the diagnosis of microorganisms producing nucleases in real time, while growing them in culture media. The detection of such microorganisms was possible in a short period of time, as short as 10 minutes up to a maximum of 8 hours, depending on the bacterial density. We also showed the suitability of this new method for determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in culture media in a very short period of time, compared to conventional methods. We believe that it can make a significant contribution to gain new insights for analysis of complex materials such as clinical samples, food samples and environmental samples.