Bacterial strains used and the extraction of DNA
DNA was successfully extracted from all pathogenic and negative control strains to be used as templates for the downstream LAMP assays.
LAMP procedure
Primers used in this work were specific for the amplification of the molecular target in each Vibrio species. The amplification products obtained by LAMP when Vibrio strains were used demonstrated that each primer was specific in the target gene amplification of each Vibrio species (Figure 1).
Treatment of samples of oysters, shrimp, and fish for the elimination of Vibrio spp. naturally present in the samples
The treatment to eliminate Vibrio spp. naturally present on samples was adequate, allowing the reduction of 100% Vibrio spp. There was no growth of Vibrio spp. when the BAM method was followed7.
Preparation of activated carbon with bentonite (ACB) and evaluation of cellular recovery
The elimination of the reaction inhibitors using the activated carbon-bentonite allowed an increase in the sensitivity in the detection of the pathogen by the LAMP method. This is due to the ability of the activated carbon-bentonite to absorb inhibitory substances that can affect the polymerase during the amplification procedure, in addition to the limited retention of bacterial cells (Figure 2). The percentage of Vibrio recovery using different pH and contact times showed a greater cellular recovery (93.4% ± 2.9%) when the pH was 6 with a contact time of 15 min. When pH 4 was used, there was no growth of any Vibrio, and pH 7 and 9 were 33.4% ± 7.6% and 67.2% ± 5.8%, respectively. This work suggests the usage of pH 6 to improve the detection sensitivity of the method.
Evaluation of the detection limit of V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, V. vulnificus, and V. alginolyticus in oysters, shrimp, and fish samples treated with activated carbon and bentonite
In oyster samples, the detection limit for V. cholerae was 150 CFU/g, for V. alginolyticus, V. vulnificus, and V. parahaemolyticus was 3 x 102 CFU/g; in shrimp and fish samples, V. cholerae was detected at a minimum concentration of 150 CFU/g, whilst for V. alginolyticus, V. vulnificus, and V. parahaemolyticus was 76 CFU/g. The results obtained by the LAMP method revealed that using hydroxinaphthol blue compared to the LAMP sensitivity by eliminating inhibitors of reaction regarding samples that were not treated with ACB (Figure 3). We observed that the LAMP sensitivity was higher when samples were treated with ACB.
Determination of positive predictive value, negative predictive value, specificity, and sensitivity of the LAMP method
The diagnostic performance of the optimized loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method, with and without activated carbon-bentonite (ACB) pretreatment, was systematically evaluated across 150 trials to assess its robustness (Table 3). The elimination of natural food inhibitors using the ACB system significantly improved all diagnostic parameters (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) to values equal to or greater than 90% across all matrices, compared to untreated samples.
In fish and shrimp samples treated with ACB, the assay demonstrated maximum diagnostic performance, achieving a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of 100% (Figure 4). Conversely, in untreated samples of fish and shrimp, the presence of matrix-derived inhibitors severely compromised the assay, reducing the detection sensitivity to 62.5% and 52.5%, respectively. For the highly complex oyster matrix, the ACB treatment successfully mitigated major interference, yielding a high overall sensitivity of 95.0% and an NPV of 71.4% (Figure 5). In contrast, untreated oyster samples exhibited a critical drop in detection sensitivity to 32.5% and an NPV of 15.6% due to the massive presence of organic compounds such as glycogen and lipids that inhibit the polymerase.
The diagnostic specificity of the LAMP method remained at 100% across all 150 trials, regardless of the matrix type or pretreatment, with zero false-positive results recorded. This absolute specificity is attributed to the highly selective design of the primer sets targeting species-specific genes (gyrB for V. alginolyticus, ompW for V. cholerae, tlh for V. parahaemolyticus, and vvhA for V. vulnificus). These statistical findings demonstrate that the optimized ACB-LAMP method is a highly reliable and robust tool for the rapid, culture-free detection of pathogenic Vibrio species in diverse fishery products.
Finally, we consider that the use of the LAMP method in combination with a pretreatment to eliminate reaction inhibitors can increase the sensitivity of detection of pathogens in food using the LAMP method. Therefore, this technique applied to the search for V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, V. alginolyticus, and V. vulnificus should be useful in monitoring to prevent infections caused by these microorganisms.
DATA AVAILABILITY:
All raw data supporting the findings of this study, including the numerical bacterial recovery colony counts (CFU/g) under different pH values and contact times, as well as the complete diagnostic performance results for all 150 validation trials, are publicly available in the Zenodo repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21799272. The associated dataset contains the complete spreadsheet file (Supplementary File 1).

Figure 1: Specificity analysis of LAMP-amplified products on a 1.5% agarose gel. Lane M, 100 bp molecular size marker; Lane 1, negative control (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922); Lane 2, negative control (Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 49594); Lane 3, V. alginolyticus ATCC 17749; Lane 4, V. cholerae no O1 CECT 557; Lane 5, V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 7802; Lane 6, V. vulnificus ATCC 29037. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 2: Percentage of recovery of Vibrio strains using different pH conditions and contact times with the activated carbon-bentonite (ACB) mixture. Cellular recovery (%) was determined after inoculating Vibrio strains at 1.5 × 104 CFU/mL in PBS adjusted to pH 4.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 9.0, and treating with 4.6 g of ACB for 15 min, 30 min, and 60 min. The data point at pH 6.0 and 15 min of contact demonstrates optimal cellular recovery (93.4% ± 2.9%), indicating that a brief contact time is sufficient to recover target cells while maintaining high inhibitor-removal efficiency. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 3: Detection limit of LAMP-amplified products in artificially spiked seafood samples. Amplification results in (A) oyster, (B) shrimp, and (C) fish samples spiked with serial dilutions of Vibrio species and pretreated with ACB. Tubes: (1) Negative control; (2) V. alginolyticus; (3) V. parahaemolyticus; (4) V. vulnificus; (5) V. cholerae no O1; and (6) V. mimicus (used as target control). Top panel: Visual colorimetric detection using 4 μL of Hydroxynaphthol Blue (HNB, 125 μM) under naked-eye inspection, where positive reactions appear blue and negative reactions remain violet. Bottom panel: Fluorescence-based detection using Midori Green Advanced (MGA) stain visualized under a blue light transilluminator. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 4: Comparative diagnostic performance parameters of the LAMP method with and without inhibitor removal. Comparison of overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) in fish, shrimp, and oyster samples spiked at minimum detectable limits (n = 10 trials per species/matrix combination, for a total of 150 trials). Bars compare samples pretreated with the optimized activated carbon-bentonite (ACB) mixture against untreated controls (no inhibitor removal). Spiking levels were established at 150 CFU/g for V. cholerae across all matrices; 300 CFU/g for V. parahaemolyticus, V. alginolyticus, and V. vulnificus in oyster; and 76 CFU/g in fish and shrimp. Pretreatment with ACB successfully restored all diagnostic parameters to ≥90% across all matrices. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 5: Target-specific sensitivity and specificity of the optimized ACB-LAMP method across different seafood matrices. Individual diagnostic performance for V. alginolyticus, V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, and V. vulnificus in fish, shrimp, and oyster samples (n = 10 tests per target/food combination) pretreated with ACB. Specificity achieved 100% for all targets due to species-specific primer design targeting the gyrB, ompW, tlh, and vvhA genes. Sensitivity reached 100% in fish and shrimp matrices, with a slight decrease to 90% observed in oysters due to the high baseline complexity of the organic matrix interfering with the reaction. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Table 1: Primers used in Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) assays. Description of forward and backward inner primers (FIP, BIP), outer primers (F3, B3), and loop primers (LF, LB) designed for species-specific targeting of V. alginolyticus (gyrB), V. parahaemolyticus (tlh), V. vulnificus (vvhA), and V. cholerae (ompW). Please click here to download this Table.
Table 2: Contingency table for assessing the diagnostic performance parameters of the LAMP method. Standard 2x2 matrix setup used to classify and summarize True Positives (TP), True Negatives (TN), False Positives (FP), and False Negatives (FN) to calculate sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) in spiked and unspiked seafood samples. Please click here to download this Table.
Supplementary File 1: Raw datasets supporting the findings of this study. Please click here to download this file.