1e:T4a4,In this article, a panel of ssDNA aptamers specific to Staphylococcus aureus was obtained by a whole bacterium-based SELEX procedure and applied to probing S. aureus. After several rounds of selection with S. aureus as the target and Streptococcus and S. epidermidis as counter targets, the highly enriched oligonucleic acid pool was sequenced and then grouped under different families on the basis of the homology of the primary sequence and the similarity of the secondary structure. Eleven sequences from different families were selected for further characterization by confocal imaging and flow cytometry analysis. Results showed that five aptamers demonstrated high specificity and affinity to S. aureus individually. The five aptamers recognize different molecular targets by competitive experiment. Combining these five aptamers had a much better effect than the individual aptamer in the recognition of different S. aureus strains. In addition, the combined aptamers can probe single S. aureus in pyogenic fluids. Our work demonstrates that a set of aptamers specific to one bacterium can be used in combination for the identification of the bacterium instead of a single aptamer.1f:T433,While nanoscale mimics of peroxidase have been extensively developed over the past decade or so, their catalytic efficiency as a key parameter has not been substantially improved in recent years. Herein, we report a class of highly efficient peroxidase mimic-nickel-platinum nanoparticles (Ni-Pt NPs) that consist of nickel-rich cores and platinum-rich shells. The Ni-Pt NPs exhibit a record high catalytic efficiency with a catalytic constant (K_cat) as high as 4.5 × 10⁷ s^-1, which is ∼46- and 10⁴-fold greater than the K_cat values of conventional Pt nanoparticles and natural peroxidases, respectively. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the unique surface structure of Ni-Pt NPs weakens the adsorption of key intermediates during catalysis, which boosts the catalytic efficiency. The Ni-Pt NPs were applied to an immunoassay of a carcinoembryonic antigen that achieved an ultralow detection limit of 1.1 pg/mL, hundreds of times lower than that of the conventional enzyme-based assay.20:T4bc,Development of facile and sensitive bioassays is important for many point-of-care applications. In this study, we fulfilled such demand by synthesizing Pt-decorated magnetic nanozymes and developing a bioassay based on unique properties of the newly synthesized nanozymes. Fe₃O₄-Pt/core-shell nanoparticles (MPt/CS NPs) with various compositions were synthesized and characterized. Fe₃O₄ NP itself is a good nanozyme with catalytic activity superior to that of natural enzymes, but catalytic activity can be further improved by incorporating Pt to the outer layers of the Fe₃O₄ NPs and building heterogeneous nanostructures. Magnetic properties of MPt/CS NPs enable magnetic enrichment of liquid samples, whereas catalytic properties of MPt/CS NPs allow signal amplification by enzyme-like reactions. By integrating MPt/CS NPs in lateral flow immunoassay strips, one of the widely used point-of-care bioassay devices, and harnessing magnetic and enzyme-like properties of MPt/CS NPs, an increase in sensitivity of two orders of magnitude was achieved compared to the sensitivity of conventional lateral flow immunoassay based on Au nanoparticles.

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