The colonization of Escherichia coli (E. coli) to host cell surfaces is known to be a glycan-specific process that can be modulated by shear stress. In this work we investigate whether flow rate changes in microchannels integrated on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) surfaces would allow for investigating such processes in an easy and high-throughput manner. We demonstrate that adhesion of uropathogenic E. coli UTI89 on heptyl α-d-mannopyranoside-modified gold SPR substrates is minimal under almost static conditions (flow rates of 10 µL·min⁻¹), and reaches a maximum at flow rates of 30 µL·min⁻¹ (≈30 mPa). This concept is applicable to the investigation of any ligand-pathogen interactions, offering a robust, easy, and fast method for screening adhesion characteristics of pathogens to ligand-modified interfaces.
Keywords: Escherichia coli (E. coli); carbohydrates; flow rate; shear force enhancement; surface plasmon resonance (SPR).