A gold nanoparticles based immuno-bioprobe for detection of Vi capsular polysaccharide of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi.

A rapid and sensitive gold-nanobioprobe based immunoassay format has been presented for the detection of capsular Vi polysaccharide of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (surface antigen) using anti-Vi antibodies. The Vi antigen was extracted from serovar Typhi cells, under the optimised growth conditions for its over-expression. Anti-Vi antibodies were produced and conjugated with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) of definite size (~30 nm), which served as the nano-bioprobe in the detection system. A sandwich immunoassay was developed using nitrocellulose dot blot comb (8/12 wells) membranes immobilized with anti-Salmonella antibodies at the optimal concentration (43 ng spot(-1)). The Vi antigen in the clinical isolates, spiked samples and also in the standard strain (serovar Typhi Ty2) was detected by measuring the colour intensity of GNPs and correlating it with the concentration of serovar Typhi in samples. Using this developed immunoassay technique Vi positive serovar Typhi strains could be detected with a sensitivity of up to 10(2) cells mL(-1) in the clinical isolates as well as in the spiked samples. The developed immunoassay technique could be useful for the detection of typhoid fever and may be important from an epidemiological point of view.