SELECTION OF DNA APTAMER WITH SPECIFIC BINDING TO PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA

Background and Aim: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, remains a serious cause of infection and septic mortality in burn patients, particularly when nosocomially acquired and cystic fibrosis patients. The bacteriology of Pseudomonas is reviewed to increase the burn care providers understanding of the behaviour of this very common and serious pathogen in the burn care setting, before reviewing the approach to detection of the organism and treatment both medically and surgically.Methods: To improve the early detection of P. aeruginosa, several culture, PCR and serology based approaches have been compared. In recent years its mortality has increased by 15% which in part could be due to lack of a rapid and sensitive diagnostic test. In this work we introduced a new detection test for Pseudomonas aeruginosa with highly specific aptamer molecules. High binding affinity DNA oligonucleotide aptamers toward P. aeruginosa were selected through 12 rounds of whole cell System Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment process (SELEX). The SELEX procedures was monitored by flow cytometry.Results: The amount of FITC-labeled aptamer pool bound to the target was increased from 12.5% in the third round to 65% in the twelfth round of SELEX.Conclusion: The sensitivity of test toward the clinical isolates reveal that aptamers are sensitive and specific enough for the rapid detection of P. aeruginosa from clinical isolates.