Special Issue "Biosensors and Rapid Testing Bio-Analytical Platforms for Food and Water Analysis"
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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2012)
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Dr. Claudia Preininger
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Health & Environment Department / Bioresources, Konrad Lorenz Strasse 24, 3430 Tulln, Austria
E-Mail: Claudia.Preininger@ait.ac.at
Phone: +43 50550 3527
Fax: +43 50550 3666
Interests: protein biomarker arrays for medical and food diagnostics; surface modification & biomolecule immobilization; bioassays
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Recent serious food-borne disease outbreaks and fear for bioterrorist attacks have led to increased public awareness and concern over food-borne illness and contaminated (drinking) water. This has resulted in consumer demands for intensified safety control of food and water regarding biological (bacteria, parasites, fungi) and non-biological agents (toxins, chemicals). Conventional analysis methods for non-biological contaminants like antibiotics, toxins, and pharmaceutical residues comprise high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid (LC)-and gas chromatography (GC) in combination with different detection techniques and enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). While widely used in analysis laboratories HPLC, LC and GC are rarely applied in on-line monitoring or as early warning system. This is because of the sophisticated instrumentation which is not portable; and the laborious and complex sample pre-treatment (e.g. derivatization). ELISAs are well established and easy to use, but lack multiplexing capability and suffer from low sensitivity regarding bacteria detection (LODs are about 1000 cfu/g), while molecular methods and standard microbiological tests are accurate, but extremely time-consuming (several days), hence not appropriate for emergency testing.
Thus for rapid testing bio-analytical platforms, such as DNA and protein sensors that are simple in design and handling, portable and highly sensitive to allow for real-time quantification within the required measurement range are urgently needed.
This special issue will address such biosensor systems for food and water analysis.
Dr. Claudia Preininger
Guest Editor
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- biosensors and sensor arrays
- pathogens
- chemicals
- toxins
- label- and label-free detection
Published Papers (8 papers)
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Received: 4 June 2012; in revised form: 27 July 2012 / Accepted: 31 July 2012 / Published: 2 August 2012
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Abstract: Bacterial pathogens pose an increasing food safety and bioterrorism concern. Current DNA detection methods utilizing sensitive nanotechnology and biosensors have shown excellent detection, but require expensive and time-consuming polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA targets; thus, a faster, more economical method is still essential. In this proof-of-concept study, we investigated the ability of a gold nanoparticle-DNA (AuNP-DNA) biosensor to detect non-PCR amplified genomic Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. enteritidis) DNA, from pure or mixed bacterial culture and spiked liquid matrices. Non-PCR amplified DNA was hybridized into sandwich-like structures (magnetic nanoparticles/DNA/AuNPs) and analyzed through detection of gold voltammetric peaks using differential pulse voltammetry. Our preliminary data indicate that non-PCR amplified genomic DNA can be detected at a concentration as low as 100 ng/mL from bacterial cultures and spiked liquid matrices, similar to reported PCR amplified detection levels. These findings also suggest that AuNP-DNA biosensors are a first step towards a viable detection method of bacterial pathogens, in particular, for resource-limited settings, such as field-based or economically limited conditions. Future efforts will focus on further optimization of the DNA extraction method and AuNP-biosensors, to increase sensitivity at lower DNA target concentrations from food matrices comparable to PCR amplified DNA detection strategies.
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Received: 5 July 2012; in revised form: 6 August 2012 / Accepted: 20 August 2012 / Published: 27 August 2012
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Abstract: A novel lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) signal amplification strategy for the detection of Cry1Ab based on amplification via a polylysine (PL) chain and biotin-streptavidin system (BSAS) is described. In this system, multiple fluorescence dyes (FL) were directly coated on the surface of PL and conjugated with antibody via the BSAS for construction of novel signal amplification (FLPL-BSAS-mAb1) conjugates, in which FL, PL and BSAS were employed to improve the sensitivity of LFIA. Compared with conventional LFIA, the sensitivity of FLPL-BSAS-mAb1-based LFIA was increased by approximately 100-fold. Quantified linearity was achieved in the value range of 0–1,000 pg/mL. The limit of detection (LOD) was reached 10 pg/mL after optimization of reaction conditions. To our knowledge, this represents one of the most sensitive LFIA for Cry1Ab yet reported. Furthermore, the detection time for this method was about 10 min. Therefore, it should be an attractive alternative compared to conventional immunoassays in routine control for Cry1Ab.
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Received: 9 July 2012; in revised form: 3 September 2012 / Accepted: 8 October 2012 / Published: 18 October 2012
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Abstract: Green fluorescent protein-tagged sensor proteins, ArsR-GFP and CadC-GFP, have been produced as biosensors for simple and low-cost quantification of As(III) or Cd(II). In this study, the sensor protein-promoter DNA complexes were reconstructed on the surfaces of magnetic particles of different sizes. After the surface modification all the particles could be attracted by magnets, and released different amounts of GFP-tagged protein, according to the metal concentrations within 5 min, which caused significant increases in fluorescence. A detection limit of 1 µg/L for As(III) and Cd(II) in purified water was obtained only with the nanoparticles exhibiting enough magnetization after heat treatment for 1 min. Therefore, thermoresponsive magnetic nano-biosensors offer great advantages of rapidity and sensitivity for the measurement of the toxic metals in drinking water.
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Received: 5 November 2012; in revised form: 17 December 2012 / Accepted: 18 December 2012 / Published: 24 December 2012
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Abstract: Measuring bone turnover markers could detect early stages of osteoporosis and early responses to anti-osteoporotic treatments. Currently, commonly used bone turnover markers, N-telopeptides (NTx) and C-telopeptides (CTx), are measured using ELISA tests, which demands time and increases cost. Bone turnover markers need to be measured more easily for general use. Lateral flow-based immunoassay would be an appropriate method for this context. This study was performed to investigate the precision of a newly developed lateral flow-based immunoassay for measuring the urinary NTx and serum CTx, and their correlations with ELISA measurements. Urine NTx and serum CTx concentrations were determined by photoscan of newly developed strips, using a lateral flow-based immunoassay for 36 subjects (mean age 66.2 years, SD 7.5 years; four males and 32 females). Repeated measurement of urinary NTx and serum CTx were performed three times, using this technology for a precision test. The correlation of the lateral flow-based immunoassay with the ELISA measurements was analyzed. Precision of the newly developed lateral flow based immunoassay was 0.974 (ICC, 95% confidence interval, 0.955 to 0.986) and 0.995 (ICC, 95% confidence interval, 0.991 to 0.997) for urinary NTx and serum CTx, respectively. The correlation of lateral flow based immunoassay with ELISA was 0.913 for urinary NTx and 0.872 for serum CTx. These results suggest that measuring the urinary NTx and serum CTx, using a lateral flow-based immunoassay, is a relevant method for point-of-care testing and screening of bone resorption markers.
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Received: 17 November 2012; in revised form: 16 January 2013 / Accepted: 29 January 2013 / Published: 30 January 2013
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Abstract: Foodborne diseases are a major health concern that can have severe impact on society and can add tremendous financial burden to our health care systems. Rapid early detection of food contamination is therefore relevant for the containment of food-borne pathogens. Conventional pathogen detection methods, such as microbiological and biochemical identification are time-consuming and laborious, while immunological or nucleic acid-based techniques require extensive sample preparation and are not amenable to miniaturization for on-site detection. Biosensors have shown tremendous promise to overcome these limitations and are being aggressively studied to provide rapid, reliable and sensitive detection platforms for such applications. Novel biological recognition elements are studied to improve the selectivity and facilitate integration on the transduction platform for sensitive detection. Bacteriophages are one such unique biological entity that show excellent host selectivity and have been actively used as recognition probes for pathogen detection. This review summarizes the extensive literature search on the application of bacteriophages (and recently their receptor binding proteins) as probes for sensitive and selective detection of foodborne pathogens, and critically outlines their advantages and disadvantages over other recognition elements.
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Received: 6 February 2013; in revised form: 23 March 2013 / Accepted: 25 March 2013 / Published: 28 March 2013
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Abstract: In this study, we have first developed a rapid and sensitive strip immunosensor based on two heterogeneously-sized gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) probes for the detection of trace lead ions in drinking water. The sensitivity was 4-fold higher than that of the conventional LFA under the optimized conditions. The visual limit of detection (LOD) of the amplified method for qualitative detection lead ions was 2 ng/mL and the LOD for semi-quantitative detection could go down to 0.19 ng/mL using a scanning reader. The method suffered from no interference from other metal ions and could be used to detect trace lead ions in drinking water without sample enrichment. The recovery of the test samples ranged from 96% to 103%. As the detection method could be accomplished within 15 min, this method could be used as a potential tool for preliminary monitoring of lead contamination in drinking water.
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Received: 6 February 2013; in revised form: 25 March 2013 / Accepted: 10 April 2013 / Published: 18 April 2013
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Abstract: This study was conducted to develop a simple, rapid, and accurate lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) detection method for point-of-care diagnosis. The one-dot LFIA for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) was based on the modified competitive binding format using competition between AFB1 and colloidal gold-AFB1-BSA conjugate for antibody binding sites in the test zone. A Smartphone-based reading system consisting of a Samsung Galaxy S2 Smartphone, a LFIA reader, and a Smartphone application for the image acquisition and data analysis. The detection limit of one-dot LFIA for AFB1 is 5 μg/kg. This method provided semi-quantitative analysis of AFB1 samples in the range of 5 to 1,000 μg/kg. Using combination of the one-dot LFIA and the Smartphone-based reading system, it is possible to conduct a more fast and accurate point-of-care diagnosis.
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Andrew Gehring, Charles Barnett, Ted Chu, Chitrita DebRoy, Doris D'Souza, Shannon Eaker, Pina Fratamico, Barbara Gillespie, Narasimha Hegde, Kevin Jones, Jun Lin, Stephen Oliver, George Paoli, Ashan Perera and Joseph Uknalis
Received: 22 February 2013; in revised form: 9 April 2013 / Accepted: 15 April 2013 / Published: 3 May 2013
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Abstract: Many rapid methods have been developed for screening foods for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. Rapid methods that have the additional ability to identify microorganisms via multiplexed immunological recognition have the potential for classification or typing of microbial contaminants thus facilitating epidemiological investigations that aim to identify outbreaks and trace back the contamination to its source. This manuscript introduces a novel, high throughput typing platform that employs microarrayed multiwell plate substrates and laser-induced fluorescence of the nucleic acid intercalating dye/stain SYBR Gold for detection of antibody-captured bacteria. The aim of this study was to use this platform for comparison of different sets of antibodies raised against the same pathogens as well as demonstrate its potential effectiveness for serotyping. To that end, two sets of antibodies raised against each of the “Big Six” non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) as well as E. coli O157:H7 were array-printed into microtiter plates, and serial dilutions of the bacteria were added and subsequently detected. Though antibody specificity was not sufficient for the development of an STEC serotyping method, the STEC antibody sets performed reasonably well exhibiting that specificity increased at lower capture antibody concentrations or, conversely, at lower bacterial target concentrations. The favorable results indicated that with sufficiently selective and ideally concentrated sets of biorecognition elements (e.g., antibodies or aptamers), this high-throughput platform can be used to rapidly type microbial isolates derived from food samples within ca. 80 min of total assay time. It can also potentially be used to detect the pathogens from food enrichments and at least serve as a platform for testing antibodies.
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Last update: 7 May 2013
