Integrated microfluidic biochip with electrolytic lysis module for rapid detection of Escherichia coli

The integrated detection of nucleic acids is a molecular biology technology that integrates the entire process of nucleic acid testing into a "sample-to-answer" system, which is widely used for microbial detection and disease diagnosis. Rapid and accurate detection of Escherichia coli and accurate differentiation of subtypes are important for protecting the population from E. coli diseases and ensuring water and food safety. However, conventional E. coli identification and detection techniques still face significant challenges in achieving high detection speed and sensitivity. In this work, we report an electrolysis microfluidic biochip. The microchip can detect E. coli in 30 min compared to conventional methods that require several hours of detection time. The microfluidic chip includes an electroporation lysis region and a nucleic acid amplification detection region, which are sequentially on an integrated microfluidic chip. In microfluidic chips, silver paste interdigital electrode can effectively enhance the electric field strength, resulting in efficient lysis at low voltages (20 V) and formation of irreversible electroporation to lyse bacteria while avoiding excessive heating of nucleic acids. Depending on the different concentrations of E. coli added, fluorescent signals of different intensities can be clearly observed, and the limit of detection (LoD) can be as low as 50 CFU/μL. Our integrated microfluidic chip has several advantages such as simple design, sensitive and fast, multi-target detection and low cost. These features make our integrated electrolysis microfluidic chip expected to contribute to the development of integrated technology for nucleic acid detection and be widely used in a variety of field environments, such as medical institutions or home testing, as well as provide technical support for safeguarding water resources and food safety.