Molecularly imprinted polymer as a synthetic receptor mimic for capacitive impedimetric selective recognition of Escherichia coli K-12
Nabila Yasmeen, Mathieu Etienne, Piyush Sindhu Sharma, Sofiane El‐Kirat‐Chatel, Mariela Brites Helú, Włodzimierz Kutner
Abstract
We fabricated an electrochemical molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) chemosensor for rapid identification and quantification of E. coli strain using 2-aminophenyl boronic acid as the functional monomer. This strain is a modified Gram-negative strain of Escherichia coli bacterium, an ordinary human gut component. The E. coli strongly interacts with a boronic acid because of porous and flexible polymers of the cell wall. The SEM imaging showed that the bacteria template was partially entrapped within the polymeric matrix in a single step. Moreover, this imaging confirmed E. coli K-12 cell template extraction effectiveness. The prepared MIP determined the E. coli K-12 strain up to 2.9 × 104 cells mL−1. The interference study performed in the presence of E. coli variants expressing different surface appendages (type 1 fimbriae or Antigen 43 protein) or Shewanella oneidensis MR1, another Gram-negative bacteria, demonstrated that the bacterial surface composition notably impacts sensing properties of the bacteria imprinted polymer.