| dc.description.abstract | Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive, immobile, and round-shaped bacterium.
It is responsible for a variety of human illnesses, such as infective endocarditis,
osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, prosthetic device infections, pulmonary infections,
skin, and soft tissue infections, etc. Alpha-hemolysin (also called alpha-toxin), a
common pore-forming toxin which can penetrate the host cell membrane, leading
to osmotic swelling, rupture, lysis, and subsequently cell death, appears to be a
potential biomarker for S. aureus detection. Based on a sandwich assay format,
this study developed a lateral flow assay (LFA) targeting alpha-hemolysin to detect
S. aureus at a laboratory scale. Moreover, silver enhancement technology was
applied to improve the detection limit and maximize the assay's effectiveness. The
developed LFA test could detect the target antigen within approximately 15 – 20
minutes with no cross-reactivity. The limit of detection (LOD) was increased 10-
fold after the silver enhancement technology was utilized, from 105 to 104 CFU/mL
of S. aureus suspensions. Compared to other conventional bacteria detection
methods, the LFA combining silver enhancement technique seems convenient,
straightforward to use, and takes a short time to complete with uncomplicated
protocols. Our study results indicated that alpha toxin is a promising target to
detect S. aureus by LFA. | en_US |
