Pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) widely exist in Nature and have always been a serious threat to the human health. Conventional colony forming units counting-based methods are quite time consuming and not fit for rapid detection for E. coli. Therefore, novel strategies for improving detection efficiency and sensitivity are in great demand. Aptamers have been widely used in various sensors due to their extremely high affinity and specificity. Successful applications of aptamers have been found in the rapid detection of pathogenic E. coli. Herein, we present the latest advances in screening of aptamers for E. coli, and review the preparation and application of aptamer-based biosensors in rapid detection of E. coli. Furthermore, the problems and new trends in these aptamer-based biosensors for rapid detection of pathogenic microorganism are also discussed.
Keywords: Escherichia coli; aptamer; electrochemical detector; rapid detection; sensor.