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

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 infection

Comparison of different culture and smear preparation in detection of mycologic

History and Objectives: Due to the prevalence and importance of diagnosis of fungi in Iran and considering the difficulties and the economic cost of providing different stains and culture media, the present study was undertaken. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study on 10 strains of fungi including opportunistic, dermatophytes and yeast were performed. The effects of culture media and staining techniques were studied on the modified water agar, saboraud's agar, mycobiotic agar, corn meal agar, nutrient agar with methods of Riddle, Microslide, Hole making, Scotch tape, Gram, Giemsa, Wright Giemsa, PAS, Wright, Lactophenole catton blue, Kinyoun's acid fast, Methylene blue, Calcofour white, Congo red and Acridine organ. Results: The present study showed that Sepedonium, Trichotheclum, Microsporum gypseum, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fungi were etiologic agents in the modified water agar and in the microslide, epidermophyton fluccosum modified water agar and Trichophyton mentagrophyton in Riddle method were grown better than other procedures. Conclusion: Due to the results of the present study, both Gram and Giemsa stains were better than other staining techniques and water agar is selective medium for better identification of fungi