Listeria monocytogenes is one of the most common causes of food illness deaths worldwide, with multiple outbreaks in the United States alone. Current methods to detect foodborne pathogens are laborious and can take several hours to days to produce results. Thus, faster techniques are needed to detect bacteria within the same reliability level as traditional techniques. This study reports on a rapid, accurate, and sensitive aptamer biosensor device for Listeria spp. detection based on platinum interdigitated array microelectrodes (Pt-IDEs). Pt-IDEs with different geometric electrode gaps were fabricated by lithographic techniques and characterized by cyclic voltammetric (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and potential amperometry (DCPA) measurements of reversible redox species. Based on these results, 50 μm Pt-IDE was chosen to further functionalize with a Listeria monocytogenes DNA aptamer selective to the cell surface protein internalin A, via metal-thiol self-assembly at the 5' end of the 47-mer's. EIS analysis was used to detect Listeria spp. without the need for label amplification and pre-concentration steps. The optimized aptamer concentration of 800 nM was selected to capture the bacteria through internalin A binding and the aptamer hairpin structure near the 3' end. The aptasensor was capable of detecting a wide range of bacteria concentration from 10 to 10⁶ CFU/mL at lower detection limit of 5.39 ± 0.21 CFU/mL with sensitivity of 268.1 ± 25.40 (Ohms/log [CFU/mL]) in 17 min. The aptamer based biosensor offers a portable, rapid and sensitive alternative for food safety applications with one of the lowest detection limits reported to date.

Date Published: 13 May 2016
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9863, Smart Biomedical and Physiological Sensor Technology XIII, 98630F (13 May 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2223443

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9863:
Smart Biomedical and Physiological Sensor Technology XIII
Brian M. Cullum; Douglas Kiehl; Eric S. McLamore, Editor(s)