Rapid detection of Salmonella in milk by a nuclear magnetic resonance biosensor based on the streptavidin-biotin system and O-carboxymethyl chitosan target gadolinium probe.

Rapid and sensitive detection of foodborne pathogens is of great importance for food safety. Here, a set of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) biosensors based on a O-carboxymethyl chitosan target gadolinium (Gd) probe was developed to quickly detect Salmonella in milk by combining NMR technology and bioimmunotechnology with membrane filtration technology. First, O-carboxymethyl chitosan (O-CMC) was biotinylated to prepare biotinylated O-carboxymethyl chitosan (biotin-O-CMC) through amide reaction, and biotinylated magnetic complexes (biotin-O-CMC-Gd) were obtained by using O-CMC, which has strong chelating adsorption on Gd. The target probe was obtained by combining biotin-O-CMC-Gd with the biotinylated antibody (biotin-antibody) via streptavidin (SA) by introducing the SA-biotin system. Then, Salmonella was captured by the target probe through antigen-antibody interaction. Finally, NMR was used to measure the longitudinal relaxation time (T) of the filtrate collected by membrane filtration. This NMR biosensor with good specificity and high efficiency can detect Salmonella with the sensitivity of 1.8 × 10 cfu/mL within 2 h; in addition, it can realize the detection of complex samples because of its strong anti-interference capability and may open up a new method for rapid detection of Salmonella, which has a great application potential.