An optical aptasensor for real-time quantification of Endotoxin

High accuracy monitoring of endotoxin is crucial for food and pharmaceutical products. Endotoxin is a deadly pyrogen, evidenced by the fact that it is a main trigger of sepsis, a disease that accounts for 1 out of 5 deaths in intensive care units. However, current endotoxin detection relies on multistep processes that are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and unsustainable.

Here, the work led by Dr. Alina Rwei, together with (then) postdoctoral scholar Vasileios Papadimitriou (ChemE) and visiting PhD student Pancheng Zhu (ChemE), reports an aptamer-based biosensor for the real-time optical detection of endotoxin.

In a recent issue of the Journal of the SCIENCE ADVANCES they show that the sensor exhibits high specificity, reliability (i.e., linear concentration to signal profile in logarithmic scale), and reusability for repeated endotoxin measurements. Furthermore, individual endotoxins can be detected by monitoring the color of single AuNPs via a color camera, achieving single-molecule resolution. This platform can potentially advance endotoxin detection to safeguard medical, food, and pharmaceutical products.