Sensorsysteme und Systemintegration

Pyocyanin (PYO) is a specific metabolite of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and detection of it can lead to the fast diagnosis of Pseudomonas infections, which are life-threating, especially for immunocompromised patients. In this study PYO levels down to concentrations of 0.5 µM in aqueous solution were detected with the lab-on-a-chip surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform. Furthermore, as a proof of principle, PYO was spiked to the artificial sputum and saliva samples collected from three volunteers. PYO was successfully detected in saliva down to the 10 µM concentration for two of the investigated samples, while in the case of the third sample spectral changes were observed at 25 µM. For the PYO in artificial sputum, the recorded SERS spectra were dominated by components of artificial sputum and the target analyte could be observed only for a concentration of 1 mM. The results establish the potential for the detection of PYO directly from complex matrixes.