Abstract
Evaluating the bacterial activity effectively is critical to addressing the challenges posed by bacterial infections. Electrochemistry offers significant advantages in accuracy and cost efficiency compared with methods that are more time-consuming or require expensive instrumentation. This study initially established an electrochemical method for detecting bacterial activity using heat treatment as the pretreatment step. Subsequent optimization of the heat treatment and detection conditions further enhanced the method efficiency. The detection results of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) under different heating conditions showed that the peak current values of E. coli and S. aureus were the highest after heating at 50 °C for 15 min. The dynamic changes in the electrochemical signals from the heat-treated bacteria with alteration in heating conditions were indicated to be related to the effects of heating on the external structure and purine metabolism of the bacterial cells. Although heat-treated E. coli and S. aureus exhibited similar peak potentials, different substances were observed to have contributed to these potentials. A positive linear correlation was observed between the peak current and bacterial concentration. Compared to the plate counting method, the electrochemical method detected the activity changes in E. coli and S. aureus from the logarithmic to the stationary phase earlier. The findings support the broad application of electrochemical methods in microbial detection and provide valuable insights into the purine metabolism of heat-stressed bacteria.