DNA aptamers selection for Staphylococcus aureus cells by SELEX and Cell-SELEX

• Published in: Molecular biology reports Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 157 - 165
• Main Authors: de Melo, Mariane Izabella Abreu, da Silva Cunha, Pricila, Ferreira, Iêda Mendes, de Andrade, Antero Silva Ribeiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; Aptamers; Aptamers, Nucleotide - chemistry; Aptamers, Nucleotide - genetics; Bacteria; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Diagnosis; Escherichia coli - metabolism; Histology; Humans; Life Sciences; Morphology; Original Article; Penicillin; Peptidoglycan; Peptidoglycans; Prosthetics; SELEX Aptamer Technique - methods; Soft tissues; Staphylococcal Infections - microbiology; Staphylococcus aureus; Staphylococcus aureus - genetics; Staphylococcus aureus - metabolism; Streptococcus infections; Peptidoglycan; Bacterial infections; Diagnosis; Aptamers; Staphylococcus aureus
• ISSN: 0301-4851; 1573-4978
• DOI: 10.1007/s11033-022-07991-0

Background Staphylococcus aureus is the most common bacteria found in skin, soft tissues, bone, and bone prostheses infections. The aim of this study was to select DNA aptamers for S. aureus to be applied in the diagnosis of bacteria. Methods and results We used SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponencial Enrichment) for peptidoglycan followed by cell-SELEX with S. aureus cells as target. Four sequences showed significantly higher binding to S. aureus distinguishing it from the control cells of other significant microbial species:  Escherichia coli ,  Candida albicans , Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae . In particular, ApSA1 (Kd = 62.7 ± 5.6 nM) and ApSA3 (Kd = 43.3 ± 3.0 nM) sequences combined high affinity and specificity for S. aureus , considering all microorganisms tested. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that these aptamers were able to identify peptidoglycan in the S. aureus surface and have great potential for use in the development of radiopharmaceuticals capable to identify S. aureus infectious foci, as well as in other aptamer-based methodologies for bacteria diagnosis.