Aptasensor for the Detection of <i>Moraxella catarrhalis</i> Adhesin UspA2

oleh: Maria G. Sande, Débora Ferreira, Joana L. Rodrigues, Luís D. R. Melo, Athanasios Saragliadis, Dirk Linke, Felismina T. C. Moreira, Maria Goreti F. Sales, Ligia R. Rodrigues

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-01-01

Deskripsi

Innovative point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic platforms are desirable to surpass the deficiencies of conventional laboratory diagnostic methods for bacterial infections and to tackle the growing antimicrobial resistance crisis. In this study, a workflow was implemented, comprising the identification of new aptamers with high affinity for the ubiquitous surface protein A2 (UspA2) of the bacterial pathogen <i>Moraxella catarrhalis</i> and the development of an electrochemical biosensor functionalized with the best-performing aptamer as a bioreceptor to detect UspA2. After cell-systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (cell-SELEX) was performed, next-generation sequencing was used to sequence the final aptamer pool. The most frequent aptamer sequences were further evaluated using bioinformatic tools. The two most promising aptamer candidates, Apt1 and Apt1_RC (Apt1 reverse complement), had <i>K<sub>d</sub></i> values of 214.4 and 3.4 nM, respectively. Finally, a simple and label-free electrochemical biosensor was functionalized with Apt1_RC. The aptasensor surface modifications were confirmed by impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The ability to detect UspA2 was evaluated by square wave voltammetry, exhibiting a linear detection range of 4.0 × 10<sup>4</sup>–7.0 × 10<sup>7</sup> CFU mL<sup>−1</sup>, a square correlation coefficient superior to 0.99 and a limit of detection of 4.0 × 10<sup>4</sup> CFU mL<sup>−1</sup> at pH 5.0. The workflow described has the potential to be part of a sensitive PoC diagnostic platform to detect and quantify <i>M. catarrhalis</i> from biological samples.