A rapid and sensitive detection of microbes in water and biological fluids is a key requirement in water and food safety, environmental monitoring, and clinical diagnosis and treatment. In the current study, electrospun polystyrene-co-maleic anhydride (PSMA) fibers with conjugated mannose and tetraphenylethylene (TPE) were developed for Escherichia coli (E. coli) detection, taking advantage of the high grafting capabilities of ultrafine fibers and the highly porous structure of the fibrous mat to entrap bacterial cells. The specific binding between mannose grafts on PSMA fibers and FimH proteins from the fimbriae of E. coli led to an efficient "turn-on" profile of TPE due to the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. Poly(ethylene glycol) diamine was used as hydrophilic tethers to increase the conformational mobility of mannose grafts, indicating a more sensitive change in the fluorescence intensity against bacteria concentrations, a lower fluorescence background of fibers without bacteria incubation, and a sufficient space for bacteria binding, compared with the use of hexamethylenediamine or poly(ethylene imine) as spacers for mannose grafting. The addition of bovine serum albumin, glucose, or both of them into bacteria suspensions showed no significant changes in the fluorescence intensity of fibrous mats, indicating the anti-interference capability against these proteins and saccharides. An equation was drafted of the fluorescence intensities of fibrous mats against E. coli concentrations ranging from 10(2) to 10(5) CFU/mL. The test strip format was established on mannose-conjugated PSMA fibers after exposure to E. coli of different concentrations, providing a potential tool with a visual sensitivity of bacteria concentrations as low as 10(2) CFU/mL in a matter of minutes. This strategy may offer a capacity to be expanded to exploit electrospun fibrous mats and other carbohydrate-cell interactions for bioanalysis and biosensing of pathogenic bacteria.
Keywords: aggregation-induced emission; bacterium detection; bacterium testing strip; electrospun fibrous mat; tetraphenylethylene.