Color changing Redox Active Paper Stamps (CoRAPS) for quick and easy detection of bacterial infection

Abstract

Even small wounds can pose severe health risks to the subject on being infected with bacterial pathogens. Added concern about this comes from the fact that such infections might not be identifiable with normal eyes without any assistance. Therefore, the detection of such infections is of utmost importance. In the current study, color changing redox-active paper stamps (CoRAPS) have been developed to detect such microbial infections in a quick span with low required skill set and less complex machinery. CoRAPS utilizes the combination of carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) and a redox-active dye, resazurin, on a paper substrate. The prepared CoRAPS were found to be capable of detecting the bacterial population within 15 min of exposure in suspension condition whereas artificially created wound mimic with bacterial load could show color change of CoRAPS in ∼40 min of exposure. These timelines are significantly lower than the time required for conventional methods which generally takes 12–24 h in accessing the infection. The sensitivity of the product could be enhanced ∼100-fold by using an associated, newly developed, Bacticator app. Thus, CoRAPS in combination of newly developed Bacticator app provides a potential solution for the quick, user-friendly, and on-site detection of bacterial infection and can be effectively used for human and animal wound infection detections alike.