Hand-powered centrifugal microfluidic platform inspired by the spinning top for sample-to-answer diagnostics of nucleic acids

Lab on a Chip ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 610-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Fei Tian ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Qiang Feng ◽  
Tingxuan Ma ◽  
...  

A hand-powered centrifugal microfluidic platform enables simultaneous detection of pathogenic bacteria within a small disc in an electricity-free manner.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Anca Butiuc-Keul ◽  
Anca Farkas ◽  
Rahela Carpa ◽  
Dumitrana Iordache

Being frequently exposed to foreign nucleic acids, bacteria and archaea have developed an ingenious adaptive defense system, called CRISPR-Cas. The system is composed of the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) array, together with CRISPR (<i>cas</i>)-associated genes. This system consists of a complex machinery that integrates fragments of foreign nucleic acids from viruses and mobile genetic elements (MGEs), into CRISPR arrays. The inserted segments (spacers) are transcribed and then used by cas proteins as guide RNAs for recognition and inactivation of the targets. Different types and families of CRISPR-Cas systems consist of distinct adaptation and effector modules with evolutionary trajectories, partially independent. The origin of the effector modules and the mechanism of spacer integration/deletion is far less clear. A review of the most recent data regarding the structure, ecology, and evolution of CRISPR-Cas systems and their role in the modulation of accessory genomes in prokaryotes is proposed in this article. The CRISPR-Cas system&apos;s impact on the physiology and ecology of prokaryotes, modulation of horizontal gene transfer events, is also discussed here. This system gained popularity after it was proposed as a tool for plant and animal embryo editing, in cancer therapy, as antimicrobial against pathogenic bacteria, and even for combating the novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2; thus, the newest and promising applications are reviewed as well.


Author(s):  
Kai Chen ◽  
Biao Ma ◽  
Jiali Li ◽  
Erjing Chen ◽  
Ying Xu ◽  
...  

Food-borne pathogens have become an important public threat to human health. There are many kinds of pathogenic bacteria in food consumed daily. A rapid and sensitive testing method for multiple food-borne pathogens is essential. Europium nanoparticles (EuNPs) are used as fluorescent probes in lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) to improve sensitivity. Here, recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) combined with fluorescent LFIA was established for the simultaneous and quantitative detection of Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Escherichia coliO157:H7. In this work, the entire experimental process could be completed in 20 min at 37 °C. The limits of detection (LODs) of EuNP-based LFIA–RPA were 9.0 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL for Listeria monocytogenes, 7.0 CFU/mL for Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and 4.0 CFU/mL for Escherichia coliO157:H7. No cross-reaction could be observed in 22 bacterial strains. The fluorescent LFIA–RPA assay exhibits high sensitivity and good specificity. Moreover, the average recovery of the three food-borne pathogens spiked in food samples was 90.9–114.2%. The experiments indicate the accuracy and reliability of the multiple fluorescent test strips. Our developed EuNP-based LFIA–RPA assay is a promising analytical tool for the rapid and simultaneous detection of multiple low concentrations of food-borne pathogens.


Author(s):  
Mirela C. M. Prates ◽  
Edwin Tamashiro ◽  
José L. Proenca-Modena ◽  
Miriã F. Criado ◽  
Tamara H. Saturno ◽  
...  

We sought to investigate the prevalence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in secretions and tonsillar tissues of children with chronic adenotonsillitis hypertrophy compared to controls. Prospective case-control study comparing patients between 2 and 12 years old who underwent adenotonsillectomy due to chronic adenotonsillar hypertrophy to children without disease. We compared detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Moraxella catarrhalis by real-time PCR in palatine tonsils, adenoids, and nasopharyngeal washes obtained from 37 children with and 14 without adenotonsillar hypertrophy. We found high frequency (>50%) of Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in both groups of patients. Although different sampling sites can be infected with more than one bacterium and some bacteria can be detected in different tissues in the same patient, adenoids, palatine tonsils, and nasopharyngeal washes were not uniformly infected by the same bacteria. Adenoids and palatine tonsils of patients with severe adenotonsillar hypertrophy had higher rates of bacterial coinfection. There was good correlation of detection of Moraxella catarrhalis in different sampling sites in patients with more severe tonsillar hypertrophy, suggesting that Moraxella catarrhalis may be associated with the development of more severe hypertrophy, that inflammatory conditions favor colonization by this agent. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis are frequently detected in palatine tonsils, adenoids, and nasopharyngeal washes in children. Simultaneous detection of Moraxella catarrhalis in adenoids, palatine tonsils, and nasopharyngeal washes was correlated with more severe tonsillar hypertrophy.


Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 2277
Author(s):  
Kang-Ho Lee ◽  
Dongkyu Lee ◽  
Jongsu Yoon ◽  
Ohwon Kwon ◽  
Jaejong Lee

A disposable potentiometric sensor was newly developed for the amplification-coupled detection of nucleic acids. The hydrogen-ion is generally released during isothermal amplification of nucleic acids. The surface potential on the oxide-functionalized electrode of the extended gate was directly measured using full electrical circuits with the commercial metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and ring oscillator components, which resulted in cost-effective, portable and scalable real-time nucleic acid analysis. The current-starved ring oscillator changes surface potential to its frequency depending on the square of the variation in pH with a high signal-to-noise ratio during isothermal amplification. The device achieves a conversion rate of 20.5 kHz/mV and a detection resolution of 200 µV for the surface potential. It is demonstrated that the sensor successfully monitors in real-time isothermal amplification of the extracted nucleic acids from Salmonella pathogenic bacteria. The in situ variations in the frequency of the pH-sensitive sensor were compared with the results of both a conventional optical device and pH-meter during isothermal amplification.


Revista Vitae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Carvajal Barbosa ◽  
Diego Insuasty Cepeda ◽  
Andrés Felipe León Torres ◽  
Maria Mercedes Arias Cortes ◽  
Zuly Jenny Rivera Monroy ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND : Biosensing techniques have been the subject of exponentially increasing interest due to their performance advantages such as high selectivity and sensitivity, easy operation, low cost, short analysis time, simple sample preparation, and real-time detection. Biosensors have been developed by integrating the unique specificity of biological reactions and the high sensitivity of physical sensors. Therefore, there has been a broad scope of applications for biosensing techniques, and nowadays, they are ubiquitous in different areas of environmental, healthcare, and food safety. Biosensors have been used for environmental studies, detecting and quantifying pollutants in water, air, and soil. Biosensors also showed great potential for developing analytical tools with countless applications in diagnosing, preventing, and treating diseases, mainly by detecting biomarkers. Biosensors as a medical device can identify nucleic acids, proteins, peptides, metabolites, etc.; these analytes may be biomarkers associated with the disease status. Bacterial food contamination is considered a worldwide public health issue; biosensor-based analytical techniques can identify the presence or absence of pathogenic agents in food. OBJECTIVES: The present review aims to establish state-of-the-art, comprising the recent advances in the use of nucleic acid-based biosensors and their novel application for the detection of nucleic acids. Emphasis will be given to the performance characteristics, advantages, and challenges. Additionally, food safety applications of nucleic acid-based biosensors will be discussed. METHODS: Recent research articles related to nucleic acid-based biosensors, biosensors for detecting nucleic acids, biosensors and food safety, and biosensors in environmental monitoring were reviewed. Also, biosensing platforms associated with the clinical diagnosis and food industry were included. RESULTS: It is possible to appreciate that multiple applications of nucleic acid-based biosensors have been reported in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, as well as to identify foodborne pathogenic bacteria. The use of PNA and aptamers opens the possibility of developing new biometric tools with better analytical properties. CONCLUSIONS: Biosensors could be considered the most important tool for preventing, treating, and monitoring diseases that significantly impact human health. The aptamers have advantages as biorecognition elements due to the structural conformation, hybridization capacity, robustness, stability, and lower costs. It is necessary to implement biosensors in situ to identify analytes with high selectivity and lower detection limits.


The Analyst ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 144 (18) ◽  
pp. 5504-5510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Yin ◽  
Liqi Liu ◽  
Xia Sun ◽  
Laiyong Hou ◽  
Yu Lu ◽  
...  

Simultaneous detection of different types of cancer biomarkers (nucleic acids and proteins) could facilitate early diagnosis of cancer and clinical treatment.


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