Abstract:

Diseases caused by food-borne pathogenic bacteria pose a great threat to human health. Although some pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus， Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica have made great progress in diagnosis and prevention， it is still a challenge to develop fast， efficient and low-cost detection methods. Functional nucleic acids （FNAs） are a kind of nucleic acids with functions beyond the conventional genetic function of nucleic acids， mainly including natural ribozymes， riboswitches， as well as aptamers， RNAzymes and deoxyribozymes screened by exponential enrichment ligand system evolution （SELEX） in vitro. Because of its high stability， specificity and designability， aptamers and DNAzymes have become an ideal tool for identifying pathogenic microorganisms， which has attracted much attention in the fields of biosensing and medical diagnosis in recent years. This paper reviewed the screening principle and process of functional nucleic acids， the application progress and challenges of aptamers and RNA cleavage deoxyribozymes （RCDs） in the detection of pathogenic bacteria， and prospected their future development prospects.

Key words: functional nucleic acids, SELEX technology, pathogenic bacteria, biosensor

摘要：

由食源性致病菌引发的疾病对人类健康构成巨大威胁。虽然一些致病菌如金黄色葡萄球菌、大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌等在诊断和预防方面已经取得了重大进展，但开发快速、高效、低成本的检测方法仍然是一项挑战。功能核酸（functional nucleic acids，FNAs）是一类功能超出核酸常规遗传作用的核酸，主要包括天然的核酶（RNAzymes）、核糖开关（riboswitches）以及体外通过指数富集配体系统进化技术（systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment，SELEX）筛选的适配体（aptamers）、核酶（RNAzymes）和脱氧核酶（DNAzymes）。适配体和脱氧核酶因具有较高的稳定性、特异性和可设计性，使其成为病原微生物识别的理想工具，近年来在生物传感和医学诊断领域备受关注。综述了功能核酸的筛选原理和流程、适配体及具有RNA裂解活性的脱氧核酶（RNA cleavage deoxyribozymes，RCDs）在致病菌检测中的应用进展和面临的挑战，并对其未来的发展前景进行了展望。

关键词: 功能核酸, SELEX技术, 致病菌, 生物传感器