Using bacterial selex to select highly-specific aptamers and their applications in paper-based microfluidic chips for rapid diagnosis of multiple bacteria

In this study, a new screening process called "bacterial SELEX" was reported to screen favorable aptamers targeting four common nosocomial and antibiotics-resistant bacteria, including Acinetobacter baumannii, vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE), Escherichia coli, and multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The new bacterial SELEX system performed three critical selecting stages for screening of bacteria-specific aptamers. A paper-based microfluidic system was further developed by using the selected specific aptamers and a biotin-streptavidin color reaction for rapid detection of these four bacteria. The proposed paper-based microfluidic chip has several advantages, such as compactness in size, ease to handle, high specificity and capability to detect multiple pathogens simultaneously. It may be promising for point-of-care applications in the near future.