Portable bacteria-capturing chip for direct surface-enhanced Raman scattering identification of urinary tract infection pathogens

Acute urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common nosocomial bacterial infections, which affect almost 50% of the population at least once in their lifetime. UTIs may lead to lethal consequences if they are left undiagnosed and untreated properly. Early, rapid and accurate uropathogens detection methods play a pivotal role in clinical process. In this work, a portable bacteria-grasping surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) chip for identification of three species of uropathogens (E. coli CFT 073, P. aeruginosa PAO1, and P. mirabilis PRM1) directly from culture matrix was reported. The chip was firstly modified with a positively-charged NH3+ group, which enable itself grasp the negatively-charged bacterial cells through the electrostatic adsorption principle. After the bacterial cells were captured by the chip, concentrated Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were used to obtain their Raman fingerprint spectra with recognizable characteristic peaks and good reproducibility. With the...