Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) for the Evaluation of Shear-Force-Dependent Bacterial Adhesion

Mucin modified SPR interfaces for studying the effect of flow on pathogen binding to Atlantic salmon mucins

Knowledge on host-pathogen interactions contributes to the development of approaches to alleviate infectious disease. In this work, we developed a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based method for investigating bacteria/mucins interactions. Furthermore, we investigated adhesion of three pathogens, Aeromonas salmonicida, Aeromonas hydrophila and Vibrio harveyi, to Atlantic salmon mucins isolated from different epithelial sites, using SPR and microtiter-based binding assays. We demonstrated that performing bacterial binding assays to mucins using SPR is feasible and has advantages over microtiter-based binding assays, especially under flow conditions. The fluid flow in the SPR is linear and continuous and SPR enables real-time reading of mucin-bacterial bonds, which provides an in vivo-like setup for analysis of bacterial binding to mucins. The variation between technical replicates was smaller using SPR detection compared to the adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence assay in microtiter plates. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the effect of flow on pathogen-mucin interaction is significant and that bacterial adhesion differ non-linearly with flow rates and depend on the epithelial source of the mucin.

High-affinity carboxyl-graphene oxide-based SPR aptasensor for the detection of hCG protein in clinical serum samples

BACKGROUND

The use of functionalized graphene oxide (fGO) has led to a new trend in the sensor field, owing to its high sensitivity with regards to sensing characteristics and easy synthesis procedures.

METHODS

In this study, we developed an ultra-sensitive carboxyl-graphene oxide (carboxyl-GO)-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) aptasensor using peptides to detect human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in clinical serum samples. The carboxyl-GO based SPR aptasensor provided high affinity and stronger binding of peptides, which are great importance to allow for a non-immunological label-free mechanism. Also, it allows the detection of low concentrations of hCG, which are in turn considered to be important clinical parameters to diagnose ectopic pregnancies and paraneoplastic syndromes.

RESULTS

The high selectivity of the carboxyl-GO-based SPR aptasensor for hCG recombinant protein was verified by the addition of the interfering proteins bovine serum albumin (BSA) and human serum albumin (HSA), which did not affect the sensitivity of the sensor. The carboxyl-GO-based chip can enhance the assay efficacy of interactions between peptides and had a high affinity binding for a ka of 17×106 M-1S-1. The limit of detection for hCG in clinical serum samples was 1.15 pg/mL.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study demonstrated that the carboxyl-GO-based SPR aptasensor had excellent sensitivity, affinity and selectivity, and thus the potential to be used as disease-related biomarker assay to allow for an early diagnosis, and possibly a new area in the field of biochemical sensing technology.

High-Throughput Quantitative Measurement of Bacterial Attachment Kinetics on Seconds Time Scale

Surface attachment is an important factor in the life of many microbial species. Late stages of attachment (i.e., mature biofilms) are rigorously studied, but data on the very early stages is scarce. The lack of robust research methods may go a long way in explaining this situation. We have developed a method that allows the rapid kinetic measurement of bacterial attachment, with seconds to minute's temporal resolution, in a high-throughput setting. The method requires the use of a commercially available microtiter plate reader capable of fluorescence measurement from the bottom, standard microtiter plates, fluorescently tagged bacteria, and a common dye. The high temporal resolution reveals nuanced, fast, and dynamic behaviors in the very early phases of attachment. To demonstrate potential applications, we tested the effect of various conditions on attachment kinetics-specie, substratum, salt concentration, and culture density. Results are in good agreement with crystal violet staining (correlation R² > 0.95 in all cases) and reproducing published data but show much greater detail and fidelity.

Measuring Antibody-Antigen Binding Kinetics Using Surface Plasmon Resonance

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is now widely embraced as a technology for monitoring a diverse range of protein-protein interactions and is considered almost de rigueur for characterizing antibody-antigen interactions. The technique obviates the need to label either of the interacting species, and the binding event is visualized in real time. Thus, it is ideally suited for screening crude, unpurified antibody samples that dominate early candidate panels following antibody selection campaigns. SPR returns not only concentration and affinity data but when used correctly can resolve the discrete component kinetic parameters (association and dissociation rate constants) of the affinity interaction. Herein, we outline some SPR-based generic antibody screening configurations and methodologies in the context of expediting data-rich ranking of candidate antibody panels and ensuring that antibodies with the optimal kinetic binding characteristics are reliably identified.

Supramolecular Recognition of Escherichia coli Bacteria by Fluorescent Oligo(Phenyleneethynylene)s with Mannopyranoside Termini Groups

Escherichia coli is one the most common bacteria responsible of uropathogenic diseases, which motives the search for rapid and easy methods of detection. By taking advantage of the specific interactions between mannose and type 1 fimbriae, in this work two fluorescent phenyleneethynylene (PE) trimers bearing one or two 4-aminophenyl-α-D-mannopyranoside termini groups were synthesized for the detection of E. coli. Three bacterial strains: ORN 178 (fimbriae I expression), ORN 208 (mutant serotype with no fimbriae expression) and one obtained from a local hospital (SS3) were used. Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (LSCM) and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) were applied for the interaction studies following two different approaches: (1) mixing the oligomer solutions with the bacterial suspension, which permitted the observation of stained bacteria and by (2) biosensing as thin films, where bacteria adhered on the surface-functionalized substrate. LSCM allows one to easily visualize that two mannose groups are necessary to have a specific interaction with the fimbriae 1. The sensitivity of SPR assays to E. coli was 10⁴ colony forming unit (CFU)/mL at 50 µL/min flow rate. The combination of PE units with two mannose groups results in a novel molecule that can be used as a specific fluorescent marker as well as a transducer for the detection of E. coli.

Differentiation of Crohn's Disease-Associated Isolates from Other Pathogenic Escherichia coli by Fimbrial Adhesion under Shear Force

Shear force exerted on uropathogenic Escherichia coli adhering to surfaces makes type-1 fimbriae stretch out like springs to catch on to mannosidic receptors. This mechanism is initiated by a disruption of the quaternary interactions between the lectin and the pilin of the two-domain FimH adhesin and transduces allosterically to the mannose-binding pocket of FimH to increase its affinity. Mannose-specific adhesion of 14 E. coli pathovars was measured under flow, using surface plasmon resonance detection on functionalized graphene-coated gold interfaces. Increasing the shear had important differential consequences on bacterial adhesion. Adherent-invasive E. coli, isolated from the feces and biopsies of Crohn’s disease patients, consistently changed their adhesion behavior less under shear and displayed lower SPR signals, compared to E. coli opportunistically infecting the urinary tract, intestines or loci of knee and hip prostheses. We exemplified this further with the extreme behaviors of the reference strains UTI89 and LF82. Whereas their FimA major pilins have identical sequences, FimH of LF82 E. coli is marked by the Thr158Pro mutation. Positioned in the inter-domain region known to carry hot spots of mutations in E. coli pathotypes, residue 158 is indicated to play a structural role in the allosteric regulation of type-1 fimbriae-mediated bacterial adhesion.

Label-free femtomolar cancer biomarker detection in human serum using graphene-coated surface plasmon resonance chips

Sensitive and selective detection of cancer biomarkers is vital for the successful diagnosis of early stage cancer and follow-up treatment. Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) in combination with different amplification strategies is one of the analytical approaches allowing the screening of protein biomarkers in serum. Here we describe the development of a point-of-care sensor for the detection of folic acid protein (FAP) using graphene-based SPR chips. The exceptional properties of CVD graphene were exploited to construct a highly sensitive and selective SPR chip for folate biomarker sensing in serum. The specific recognition of FAP is based on the interaction between folic acid receptors integrated through π-stacking on the graphene coated SPR chip and the FAP analyte in serum. A simple post-adsorption of human serum:bovine serum albumin (HS:BSA) mixtures onto the folic acid modified sensor resulted in a highly anti-fouling interface, while keeping the sensing capabilities for folate biomarkers. This sensor allowed femtomolar (fM) detection of FAP, a detection limit well adapted and promising for quantitative clinical analysis.

Detection of folic acid protein in human serum using reduced graphene oxide electrodes modified by folic-acid

The detection of disease markers is considered an important step for early diagnosis of cancer. We design in this work a novel electrochemical sensing platform for the sensitive and selective detection of folic acid protein (FP). The platform is fabricated by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) onto a gold electrode and post-functionalization of rGO with folic acid. Upon FP binding, a significant current decrease can be measured using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Using this scheme, a detection limit of 1pM is achieved. Importantly, the method also allows the detection of FP in serum being thus an appealing approach for the sensitive detection of biomarkers in clinical samples.