Department of Food Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Intellectual Ventures Laboratory/Global Good, Bellevue, WA 98007, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Mar 31;20(7):1953. doi: 10.3390/s20071953.
A sanitized drinking water supply is an unconditional requirement for public health and the overall prosperity of humanity. Potential microbial and chemical contaminants of drinking water have been identified by a joint effort between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), who together establish guidelines that define, in part, that the presence of () in drinking water is an indication of inadequate sanitation and a significant health risk. As is a nearly ubiquitous resident of mammalian gastrointestinal tracts, no detectable counts in 100 mL of drinking water is the standard used worldwide as an indicator of sanitation. The currently accepted EPA method relies on filtration, followed by growth on selective media, and requires 24-48 h from sample to results. In response, we developed a rapid bacteriophage-based detection assay with detection limit capabilities comparable to traditional methods in less than a quarter of the time. We coupled membrane filtration with selective enrichment using genetically engineered bacteriophages to identify less than 20 colony forming units (CFU) in 100 mL drinking water within 5 h. The combination of membrane filtration with phage infection produced a novel assay that demonstrated a rapid, selective, and sensitive detection of an indicator organism in large volumes of drinking water as recommended by the leading world regulatory authorities.
提供清洁饮用水是公共卫生和全人类繁荣的必要条件。世界卫生组织（WHO）和联合国儿童基金会（UNICEF）共同努力，确定了饮用水中可能存在的微生物和化学污染物。这两个组织共同制定了指导方针，部分规定了饮用水中（）的存在表明卫生条件不足，存在重大健康风险。由于（）几乎普遍存在于哺乳动物的胃肠道中，因此，100 毫升饮用水中未检测到（）的计数被全世界用作卫生指标。目前，美国环保署（EPA）认可的方法依赖于过滤，然后在选择性培养基上生长，从采样到得出结果需要 24-48 小时。有鉴于此，我们开发了一种快速基于噬菌体的检测方法，其检测限能力与传统方法相当，但所需时间不到其四分之一。我们将膜过滤与使用基因工程噬菌体进行选择性富集相结合，在 5 小时内从 100 毫升饮用水中鉴定出不到 20 个菌落形成单位（CFU）。膜过滤与噬菌体感染的结合产生了一种新的检测方法，该方法可快速、选择性和灵敏地检测大量饮用水中的指示生物，符合世界主要监管机构的建议。
