Paper-based sensors for rapid detection of virulence factor produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

PLoS One. 2018 Mar 22;13(3):e0194157. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194157. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Pyocyanin is a toxin produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Here we describe a novel paper-based electrochemical sensor for pyocyanin detection, manufactured with a simple and inexpensive approach based on electrode printing on paper. The resulting sensors constitute an effective electrochemical method to quantify pyocyanin in bacterial cultures without the conventional time consuming pretreatment of the samples. The electrochemical properties of the paper-based sensors were evaluated by ferri/ferrocyanide as a redox mediator, and showed reliable sensing performance. The paper-based sensors readily allow for the determination of pyocyanin in bacterial cultures with high reproducibility, achieving a limit of detection of 95 nM and a sensitivity of 4.30 μA/μM in standard culture media. Compared to the similar commercial ceramic based sensors, it is a 2.3-fold enhanced performance. The simple in-house fabrication of sensors for pyocyanin quantification allows researchers to understand in vitro adaptation of P. aeruginosa infections via rapid screenings of bacterial cultures that otherwise are expensive and time-consuming.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques*
  • Humans
  • Paper*
  • Pseudomonas Infections* / diagnosis
  • Pseudomonas Infections* / metabolism
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa* / metabolism
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa* / pathogenicity
  • Pyocyanine* / analysis
  • Pyocyanine* / metabolism
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Virulence Factors* / analysis
  • Virulence Factors* / metabolism

Substances

  • Virulence Factors
  • Pyocyanine

Grants and funding

HKJ was supported by The Novo Nordisk Foundation as a clinical research stipend and by a rammebevilling from Rigshospitalet R88-A3537. FZA was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology and the Department of Bioengineering and Biomedicine at DTU. GPT was supported by CACHET, the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science and the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology. MD and JSN were funded by Eureka Eurostars through the CoPS project E10621. IPM - Intelligent Pollutant Monitoring provided support in the form of salaries for JSN, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.