Double-site recognition of pathogenic bacterial whole cells based on an antibiotic-affinity strategy.

An antibiotic-affinity strategy was designed to detect pathogenic bacterial whole cells based on the strong affinity of the antibiotic agent to bind to the cell wall of the bacterium. Vancocin, a powerful glycopeptide antibiotic, was used as a molecular recognition agent for Staphylococcus aureus. To improve its specificity, IgG was utilized as the second recognition agent based on the binding between the Fc region of IgG and protein A in the cell wall.