Drinking polluted water can cause deadly diseases, and
clean water
is becoming increasingly scarce in the environment. Various pathogens
in water will affect environmental safety and human health, so it
is necessary to detect pathogens with sensitivity, specificity, simplicity,
and celerity. Here, we designed a surface-enhanced Raman scattering
(SERS) adaptive sensor based on rolling cycle amplification (RCA),
in which the introduced Au nanoparticle-based SERS aptasensor could
transform the concentration signal of Escherichia coli into a Raman signal, realizing the sensitive analysis of E. coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7). In this strategy, the magnetic beads were modified with
double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) to recognize E. coli and initiate RCA. In the presence of E. coli, one strand of dsDNA will recognize it and unchained from dsDNA
and the other strand of dsDNA will act as a trigger for RCA. Then,
the RCA reaction was initiated. A large number of SERS probes can
be attached to RCA products to achieve a strong Raman signal. Under
the optimal conditions, we obtained a low limit of detection (LOD
= 0.3 CFU/mL) and a wide detection range (102–107 CFU/mL). Also, this SERS aptasensor can complete the detection
within 45 min. It can be concluded that this SERS aptasensor has wide
application prospects in food safety inspections, environmental monitoring,
and clinical diagnosis, as it can provide a fast, sensitive, and one-pot
platform for bacterial detection.