Aptamers-Based Gold-Micro-Array for High-Selective Detection of Bacteria Using Fluorescence Microscopy

The monitoring of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in food and water is an effective preventive measure in controlling the outbreaks of serious food-related diseases. Moreover, the accurate detection of its early stage of the bacteria can ensure the public health and safety. In this study, a target-selective aptamer-based platform is proposed as a reliable procedure for the detection of the E. coli in Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) using fluorescent microscopy. The results show that the aptamer sequences, immobilized on an array of Au-micro-squares, are very high selective towards the target bacteria cells. This platform, presented for the first time, can be potentially used to detect different kinds of cells simultaneously. Also, an important cell-counting application, based on Neubauer Lam high accuracy method, is proposed and implemented and validated by experimental results.