Electrochemical DNA on a chip sensor detects bacterial urinary tract infections faster
Synthetic nucleic acid probes combine with tiny star-shaped electrodes tests for bacteria in less than an hour
An electrochemical sensor that can quickly find out whether a urinary tract infections (UTI) is caused by bacteria or not could become the latest weapon against antibiotic resistance.
Researchers at McMaster University in Canada have created a test on a chip that uses synthetic nucleic acid probes – RNA-cleaving DNAzymes (RCDs) – to detect Escherichia coli. ‘This is the first example of a DNAzyme test combined with electrical readout that is evaluated and proven using clinical samples,’ comments Leyla Soleymani, one of the scientists who led the study. Because the test avoids the need to culture bacteria, it returns results in less than an hour.