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Rapid differential diagnosis of vaginal infections using gold nanoparticles coated with specific antibodies

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Abstract

Vaginal infections caused by bacteria, Candida and Trichomonas vaginalis, affect millions of women annually worldwide. Symptoms and signs have limited value in differential diagnosis of three causes of vaginitis. Current laboratory methods for differential diagnosis are either expensive or time consuming. Therefore, in this work, development of a method based on gold nanoparticles has been investigated for rapid diagnosis of vaginal infections. Specific antibodies against three main causes of vaginal infections were raised in rabbits. The antibodies were then purified and conjugated to gold nanoparticles and used in an agglutination test for detection of vaginal infections. Finally, sensitivity and specificity of this test for diagnosis of vaginal infections were estimated using culture method as gold standard. Purification of antibodies from sera was confirmed by electrophoresis. Construction of nanoparticles was proved by TEM and FT-IR methods. Conjugation of antibodies to gold nanoparticles was confirmed using XPS method. Sensitivity and specificity of gold nanoparticles for diagnosis of Candida species were 100%, for Gardnerella were 100% and 93%, and for T. vaginalis was 53.3% and 100%, respectively. Gold nanoparticle-based method is a simple, rapid, accurate, and cost-effective test for differential laboratory diagnosis of vaginal infections.

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Acknowledgements

This work supported by Grant from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Grant no. 563284).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, Isfahan Medical School, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Hossein Hashemi, Hossein Mirhendi, Mostafa Chadeganipour, HosseinAli Yousefi, Parvin Dehghan & Hossein Yousofi Darani

  2. Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Drug Delivery Systems Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Jaleh Varshosaz

  3. Department of Microbiology, Isfahan Medical School, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Hossein Fazeli

  4. Environment Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Seyedeh Maryam Sharafi

  5. Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran

    Kourosh Manoochehri & Zahra Aliyari Chermahini

  6. Department of Gynecology, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran

    Lobat Jafarzadeh & Nafiseh Dehghanisamani

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  1. Hossein Hashemi
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  13. Hossein Yousofi Darani
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Correspondence to Hossein Yousofi Darani.

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Hashemi, H., Varshosaz, J., Fazeli, H. et al. Rapid differential diagnosis of vaginal infections using gold nanoparticles coated with specific antibodies. Med Microbiol Immunol 208, 773–780 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-019-00622-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-019-00622-9

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