Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Used for Staphylococcus Aureus Isolation and Detection

Abstract

A sensitive detection of microorganisms plays an important role in prevention and identification of infectious and deadly diseases. However, conventional methods of bacterial detection are time-consuming, laborious or expensive. A promising way to overcome these problems is offered by the strategy of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), which uses molecular templates to create selective binding sites in cross-linked polymer layers. By this approach, it is possible to prepare materials tailored for recognition of target analyte taking to account the detection method available. In this work, the novel sensitive method for Staphylococcus aureus isolation and detection was investigated. This method utilized the non-covalent molecular imprinting technique employing dopamine as a functional monomer. A layer of molecularly imprinted polymer was created on a surface of magnetic particles (MPs). MPs were chosen due to the ability to pre-concentrate bacteria from large sample volumes and thereby allow for the extremely sensitive detection.