3D Hierarchical Nanotopography for On-Site Rapid Capture and Sensitive Detection of Infectious Microbial Pathogens
Kyung Hoon Kim, Ahreum Hwang, Younseong Song, Wang Sik Lee, Jeong Moon, Jinyoung Jeong, Nam Ho Bae, Young Mee Jung, Jiyoung Jung, Seunghwa Ryu, Seok Jae Lee, Bong Gill Choi, Taejoon Kang, Kyoung G. Lee
Abstract
Effective capture and rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria causing pandemic/epidemic diseases is an important task for global surveillance and prevention of human health threats. Here, we present an advanced approach for the on-site capture and detection of pathogenic bacteria through the combination of hierarchical nanostructures and a nuclease-responsive DNA probe. The specially designed hierarchical nanocilia and network structures on the pillar arrays, termed 3D bacterial capturing nanotopographical trap, exhibit excellent mechanical reliability and rapid (<30 s) and irreversible bacterial capturability. Moreover, the nuclease-responsive DNA probe enables the highly sensitive and extremely fast (<1 min) detection of bacteria. The bacterial capturing nanotopographical trap (b-CNT) facilitates the on-site capture and detection of notorious infectious pathogens (Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus) from kitchen tools and food samples. Accordingly, the usefulness of the b-CNT is confirmed as a simple, fast, sensitive, portable, and robust on-site capture and detection tool for point-of-care testing.