Vancomycin-bacterial imprinted polymer hybrid for viable Staphylococcus aureus highly efficient capture, photothermal inactivation, and sensitive detection

To facilitate the capture, inactivation, and detection of viable Staphylococcus aureus (SA) in food, a vancomycin (Van)-bacterial imprinted polymers (BIPs) hybrid receptor was fabricated by introducing Van into SA-imprinted polydopamine (PDA) via oriented surface imprinting. Taking advantage of the dual recognition arising from Van's affinity for peptidoglycan and BIPs' imprinting effect on SA, the Van-BIPs hybrid exhibited better capture performance than Van or BIPs alone. Leveraging the photothermal effect of PDA, the captured SA could be in situ lysed within 5 min under near-infrared irradiation, causing the release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from SA. Using ATP as biomarker, as low as 13.7 CFU/mL of viable SA was able to be detected within 38 min by integrating Van-BIPs hybrid with ATP-bioluminescence assay. Spiked food samples were also successfully analyzed with the recoveries of 85.71 %-106.11 %. The Van-BIPs hybrid might offer a promising tool to control SA in food industries.