Rapid and accurate detection of Escherichia coli growth by fluorescent pH-sensitive organic nanoparticles for high-throughput screening applications.

Yang Si (1) , Chloé Grazon (1) , Gilles Clavier (1) , Rieger Jutta (2) , J.F. Audibert (1) , Bianca Sclavi (3) , Rachel Méallet-Renault (1)

1 PPSM - Laboratoire de Photophysique et Photochimie Supramoléculaires et Macromoléculaires
2 LCP - Chimie des polymères
3 LBPA - Laboratoire de Biologie et de Pharmacologie Appliquée

Rapid detection of bacterial growth is an important issue in the food industry and for medical research. Here we present a novel kind of pH-sensitive fluorescent nanoparticles (FANPs) that can be used for the rapid and accurate real-time detection of Escherichia coli growth. These organic particles are designed to be non-toxic and highly water-soluble. Here we show that the coupling of pH sensitive fluoresceinamine to the nanoparticles results in an increased sensitivity to changes in pH within a physiologically relevant range that can be used to monitor the presence of live bacteria. In addition, these FANPs do not influence bacterial growth and are stable over several hours in a complex medium and in the presence of bacteria. The use of these FANPs allows for continuous monitoring of bacterial growth via real-time detection over long time scales in small volumes and can thus be used for the screening of a large number of samples for high-throughput applications such as screening for the presence of antibiotic resistant strains.

Mots clés: bacteria; fluoresceinamine; organic nanoparticles; rapid detection; high-throughput screening (HTS); pH detection

Domaines: Polymères; Bactériologie

Yang Si, Chloé Grazon, Gilles Clavier, Rieger Jutta, J.F. Audibert, et al.. Rapid and accurate detection of Escherichia coli growth by fluorescent pH-sensitive organic nanoparticles for high-throughput screening applications.. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2016, 75, pp.320-327. ⟨10.1016/j.bios.2015.08.028⟩. ⟨hal-01230475⟩