Nanoparticles for Signaling in Biodiagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases

Colino, Clara I.; Millán, Carmen Gutiérrez; Lanao, José M.

In recent years, label-free methods for bacterial detection have been developed. One rapid label-free detection method for bacteria in blood is based on the combination of a universal sample preparation process using 10 mL of whole human blood treated with a lysis buffer and the use of a bacterial concentrator to concentrate the microorganisms, producing an enriched sample of viable microorganisms for downstream analysis by SERS. An aliquot is placed on a SERS chip containing a SiO 2 substrate coated with gold nanoparticles. This method allows for the detection of microorganisms such as S. aureus or Escherichia among others with a very good specificity and sensitivity and hence with important implications for clinical practice [40, 41] .