There is mounting evidence that contaminated hospital environment plays a crucial role in the transmission of nosocomial pathogens such as MRSA. The institution of infection control protocols is predicated on the early laboratory detection of the pathogen from relevant samples.

Processing of environmental samples for the presence of bacterial contaminants in the clinical environment is poorly standardized when compared with analysis of clinical samples. The various laboratory methods available for processing environmental samples are difficult to standardized and most require a long turnaround time before results are available.

In this study, we present a report of the performance of a novel pathogen aptasensor swab designed to qualitatively and quantitatively detect MRSA, on contaminated non-absorbable surfaces. The visual detection limit of the MRSA aptasensor swab was less than 100 CFU/ml and theoretically using a standard curve, was 2 CFU/ml. A relatively short turnaround time of 5 min was established for the assay while the linear range of quantitation was 10²–10⁵ CFU/ml. Engineered aptasensor targets MRSA selectively and binds to none of the other tested bacterial pathogen, on a multi-contaminated surface. This novel detection tool was easy to use and relatively cheap to produce.

越来越多的证据表明，受污染的医院环境在医院病原体（例如MRSA）的传播中起着至关重要的作用。感染控制规程的制定取决于对相关样本中病原体的早期实验室检测。

与临床样品的分析相比，在临床环境中存在细菌污染物的环境样品的处理标准化程度很低。可用于处理环境样品的各种实验室方法很难标准化，并且大多数方法需要很长的周转时间才能获得结果。

在这项研究中，我们提出了一种新型病原体适体拭子的性能报告，该拭子旨在定性和定量检测受污染的不可吸收表面上的MRSA。MRSA aptasensor拭子的视觉检测极限小于100 CFU / ml，理论上使用标准曲线为2 CFU / ml。相对较短的分析时间为5分钟，定量的线性范围为10 ² –10 ⁵  CFU / ml。工程化的适体传感器选择性地靶向MRSA，并且在多污染表面上不与任何其他测试细菌病原体结合。这种新颖的检测工具易于使用，且生产成本相对较低。