Performance comparison of aptamer and antibody based fluorescent biosensors for bacteria on glass surface

Antibodies are the most commonly used ligands in commercial and research analysis systems to detect pathogenic cells. However, aptamers are superior ligands compared to antibodies and other preferred research molecules for developing sensitive and robust tests due to their small size, low cost, and easy chemical modification. Although aptamers offer many opportunities for developing molecular tools, comprehensive comparisons between aptamer-based biosensors and immunoassays are unfortunately limited to protein analytes. In this study, we present a comparison of the performance of antibody and aptamer ligands with the highest biosensor development potential on glass surfaces through systematic experiments for the pathogens (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Acinetobacter baumannii) most commonly associated with sepsis in our country Turkey. The comparative study, conducted with a total of 12 ligands, reported superior success for anti-E. coli antibody (HRP) for E. coli, mouse monoclonal to S. aureus for S. aureus, and Elongation factor Tu polyclonal Antibody (tuf1) rabbit anti-A. baumannii for A. baumannii. The performance of the top-performing ligands was further validated through additional studies on the linearity, analytical sensitivity, and repeatability of the results. The results demonstrated that antibody ligands still outperform aptamer ligands in terms of efficiency, but aptamers continue to possess strong potential as an analytical tool.