No abstract

A test system is described and expanded upon for mass field immunochromatography assay on porous membrane carriers for rapid diagnostics of potato virus X (PVX) in potato leaf tissue and sprout extracts using colloidal gold nanoparticles as a marker. Sensitivity of the assay developed for PVX identification is found to be comparable to the sensitivity of solid-phase sandwich-ELISA. Complete assay time does not exceed 15 min, and the lower limit of the PVX detection in non-clarified leaf extract is 2 ng/ml. A single measurement requires 0.1-0.2 ml (3-5 drops) of tested solution only (extracted from 10-20 mg of potato leaf tissue or sprouts). The simplicity and reliability of the method makes it especially efficient in direct rapid monitoring of many infected potato specimens in the field, as verified by field trials of 360 clones of 28 domestic and foreign cultivars of potato. A diagnostic kit for routine analyses of potato viral infections both in the laboratory and in the field is described and expanded upon.

The microbial resistance to antibiotics is a genuine global threat. Consequently, a search of new inhibitors remains of acute importance due to the increasing spread of multidrug resistance. Here we present a new type of non-β-lactam β-lactamase inhibitor PA-34 based on natural phenoxyaniline, identified using computer-assisted screening of scaffolds related to those of known low-affinity inhibitors. The compound displays reversible competitive inhibition of bacterial β-lactamase TEM-171, with a K of 88 μM. Using enzyme kinetics, infra-red spectroscopy, fluorescence quenching and computer docking, we propose that the inhibitor binds at the entrance to the enzyme active site. This is a novel inhibition mechanism compared to binding covalently to the catalytic serine in the active site or non-covalently to the allosteric site. The residues involved in binding the inhibitor are conserved among molecular class A β-lactamases. The identified compound and its proposed binding mode may have a potential for a regulation of the catalytic activity of a wide range of class A β-lactamases. We also hypothesise that the presented route for finding non-β-lactam compounds may be an effective and durable approach for combating bacterial antibiotic resistance.

Horseradish peroxidase is one of the most widely used marker enzymes in immunoassays. Several disadvantages are encountered upon chemical conjugation of peroxidase with antibodies or antigens, as are low reproducibility and undefined stoichiometry. We here describe for the first time the production of a recombinant fusion of a protein analyte with horseradish peroxidase in Escherichia coli, employing refolding of inclusion bodies and reconstitution with heme. The genetic fusion approach enables preparation of conjugates with 1:1 stoichiometry and defined structure. As a protein analyte, the human heart fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) was chosen, which is a new and sensitive marker for acute myocardial infarction. The recombinant conjugate was fully active [650 U/mg with 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethyl-thiazoline-6-sulfonate) as substrate] and obtained in a yield of 12 mg/L of E. coli culture, which is better than that for recombinant peroxidase alone. The competitive immunoassay that was developed with the recombinant conjugate requires fewer incubation steps than the traditional sandwich ELISA format. It permitted the detection of H-FABP directly in plasma in the range of 10-1500 ng/mL which is the relevant range for clinical decision-making.

A highly sensitive express immunochromatography method for molecular diagnosis of plant virus infections was elaborated on the example of a model object - tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). The analysis time does not exceed 5 min, and the lower limit of TMV detection in non-clarified leaf extract (2-4 ng/ml) is comparable with the sensitivity of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of the virus. A single measurement requires 0.1-0.2 ml tested solution (extract from 10-20 mg of leaf material). The sensitivity of TMV determination in the leaf tissue extract was increased by more than one order of magnitude using signal enhancement by silver and is 0.1 ng/ml. In this case, analysis time did not exceed 25 min. The simplicity of this method makes it especially convenient in express diagnosis of numerous analyzed specimens. The prototype of a diagnostic kit for serial analyses of plant viral infections both in laboratory and field conditions was elaborated.