Interaction of Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans with surface-modified silica studied by ultra-high frequency acoustic wave biosensor

Abstract

In this work the bacteria S. aureus and fungi C. albicans were allowed to interact with quartz-based biosensor devices under different flow rates, with and without an anti-fouling coating. These experiments were conducted in order to determine if the level of fouling observed was affected by the flow rate. The biosensor used was an ultra-high frequency acoustic wave device (EMPAS) for investigation of device surface initial interaction of S. aureus or C. albicans under flow of PBS buffer at flow rates between 50 and 200 μL min⁻¹. Surface-bound microbes were also visualized by fluorescence microscopy following these experiments. S. aureus bacteria was able to foul the bare quartz sensors at each flow rate tested, with the greatest degree of fouling observed at a flow rate of 100 μL min⁻¹. C. albicans showed far less fouling of bare devices with the maximum fouling observed at a flow rate of 75 μL min⁻¹. Antifouling MEG-OH coated sensors showed greatly reduced fouling for S. aureus, with between a 90 and 99% reduction in observed frequency change depending on the flow rate used, and between 22 and 90% for C. albicans. Fluorescence images of the microbes following the experiments correlated well with the frequency data, showing a marked decrease in the amount of bacteria seen on MEG–OH–coated surfaces compared to controls.