Water treatment to mitigate microbial contaminants is a major challenge across globe paving the way to develop novel antimicrobial compounds. We aim at architecting antibacterial moiety eventually catering to vast water treatment industry. In this research study, quaternary ammonium functionalized polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer and PAMAM-ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) dendritic polymer network were synthesized. These materials were characterized by various analytical techniques like ATR-FTIR, 1HNMR, DSC etc. Water soluble generation (G) 1.0 PAMAM dendrimer and water insoluble PAMAM G1.0 EGDMA dendritic polymer network were quaternized by reacting with dilute hydrochloric acid (HCI) and octyl iodide (01) respectively. Both quaternary ammonium dendrimer products were found to exhibit potent bactericidal activity against a group of common Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. 10 mg/L concentration of liquid PAMAM G1.0 QHCI was efficient to kill 100% bacteria rapidly within an incubation time of just 2 minutes. In addition, quaternary ammonium dendritic polymer network PAMAM G1.0-EGDMA Q OI demonstrated good contact killing antimicrobial property without releasing any active molecule into the surrounding medium and disinfected contaminated water within 5 minutes. Both quaternary ammonium dendrimer and dendritic polymer network showed negligible cytotoxicity in MTT assay indicating their potential as a viable antimicrobial agent.

Present work demonstrates effective utilization of functionalized polymeric fluorescent nanoparticles as biosensing probe for the detection of Salmonella typhi bacteria on modified polycarbonate (PC) filters in about 3 h. Antibody modified-PC membranes were incubated with contaminated bacterial water for selective capturing which were detected by synthesized novel bioconjugate probe. Core–shell architecture of polymeric nanoparticles endows them with aqueous stabilization and keto-enolic functionalities making them usable for covalently linking S. typhi antibodies without any crosslinker or activator. Bradford analysis revealed that one nanoparticle has an average of 3.51 × 10−19 g or 21 × 104 bound S. typhi Ab molecules. Analysis of the regions of interest (ROI) in fluorescent micrographs of modified fluoroimmunoassay showed higher detection sensitivity of 5 × 102 cells/mL due to signal amplification unlike conventional naked dye FITC-Ab conjugate. Fluorescence of pyrene dye remained same on immobilization of biomolecules and nanoparticles showed stable fluorescent intensity under prolong exposure to laser owing to protective polymeric layer allowing accurate identification of bacteria. Surface-functionalized PC matrix and fluorescent label NPs permit covalent interactions among biomolecules enhancing signal acquisitions showing higher detection efficiency as compared to conventional microtiter plate-based system. Our novel immunoassay has the potential to be explored as rapid detection method for identifying S. typhi contaminations in water.

The use of novel antimicrobial molecules in bone cement can improve efficiency of recuperation after arthroplasty or joint replacement surgeries, avoiding the risks associated with antibiotic resistant antimicrobial agents. Nanomaterials particularly dendrimers are particularly useful for making broad spectrum killing agents owing to their large surface areas and functionalities. Therefore, we have synthesized generation 1 quaternary ammonium dendrimer of tripropylene glycol diacrylate (TPGDA) using octyl iodide (OI) [TPGDA G1.0 (=) quaternary octyl iodide (QOI)] and capitalized on their capabilities of contact killing based mechanism. We formulated different TPGDA G1.0 (=) QOI antimicrobial agent loaded liquid component composed of methyl methacrylate monomer and N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine coinitiator. Different polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) based experimental bone cement formulations were made and dendrimer concentration was optimized. Mechanical strength and compressive modulus of modified bone cement decreased on increasing concentrations and 10% was optimized for further analysis. The mechanical strength of bone cement yield the similar trend in wet conditions bone cement immersed in artificially created stimulated body fluids. Ten percent TPGDA G1.0 (=) QOI in bone cement was sufficient to kill gram positive and negative bacteria and its property is retained even after a period of 30 days. Thus novel dendritic structures show promise for clinical antimicrobial activity while retaining mechanical properties of bone cements. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 521-530, 2017.

Novel, size controlled fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles (FPNP) were synthesized having acetoacetoxy functionality on the surface for immobilization of biomolecules which can be utilized as biomarkers and labels in fluoroimmunoassays. Core-shell nanoparticles of poly(styrene, St-methyl methacrylate, MMA-acetoacetoxy ethyl methacrylate, AAEM), stabilized by various concentrations of surfactant, sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), were obtained by facile miniemulsion co-polymerization encapsulated with pyrene molecules in their hydrophobic core. Analytical, spectroscopic and imaging characterization techniques revealed the formation of stable, monodisperse, spherical nano sized particles exhibiting high luminescence properties. Particles with 1% SLS (S1) showed good dispersion stability and fluorescence intensity and were chosen as ideal candidates for further immobilization studies. Steady state fluorescence studies showed 10 times higher fluorescence intensity of S1 nanoparticles than that of pyrene solution in solvent-toluene at the same concentration. Environmental factors such as pH, ionic strength and time were found to have no effect on fluorescence intensity of FPNPs. Surface β-di-ketone groups were utilized for the covalent immobilization of enzyme conjugated antibodies without any activation or pre-treatment of nanoparticles.

Accurate assessment of various clinical, elemental, chemical antigenic substances from different sources is imperative for monitoring, preventive and treatment measures.Instrumental techniques, chromatographic analysis and immunological assays have progressed for the accurate measurement of various analytes over last decades [N.C.

This thesis is devoted towards the development of polymeric matrices and bioconjugated quantum dots for immuno-based detection of S.typhi in water. Thesis involves the surface modification of nylon membrane by grafting with GMA using free radical graft copolymerization. S.typhi specific IgG immobilized NyM-g-GMA was used as solid phase in development of ELISA for detection of S.typhi. Developed sandwich ELISA was found to be specific, reproducible, reasonably rapid and sensitive with detection limit of 103cells/mL. Developed sandwich ELISA was found to have two-fold higher limit of detection as compared to the assay performed using PS plates. For further validation of the developed immunoassay, water samples were collected from different sources in and around Delhi and tested for various parameters of validation. A method for fluorescence based detection of sandwich immunocomplex of bacteria and antibody conjugated CdSe/ZnS quantum dots on surface modified porous polycarbonate membrane was also developed. Fluorescent aggregates were observed on the anti-Sty IgG immobilized membranes under confocal microscope and semi-quantified using spectral profiling.

The identification of pathogenic bacteria in water is important for addressing preventive and treatment issues regarding health and safety. A highly sensitive and specific solid-phase sandwich ELISA procedure was developed for the detection of typhoid causing extremely lethal water borne pathogen Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) on modified isopore polycarbonate (PC) black membranes. PC membranes were chemically derivatized to generate amino groups on the surface maintaining their pysico-optico properties. Surface modified PC membranes were characterized by ATR-FTIR spectrometer, goniometer and scanning electron microscope. Polyclonal somatic 'O' type antibodies (Abs) against whole cell S. typhi were immobilized on them by following the amine glutaraldehyde chemistry. Antibody immobilized membranes captured S. typhi from buffer solution and this complex was detected colourimetrically using HRP labelled S. typhi Ab. A detection limit of 2×10(3)cells/ml of bacteria was achieved with the modified PC membranes without any pre-enrichment step as against 10(6)-10(7)CFU/ml of bacteria by typical ELISA method. The assay was demonstrated to be specific for the target bacteria when compared with other cross-reactant water borne pathogens. The intra- and inter-assay precision for 10(4) and 10(5)cells/ml was 5.3-7.4 and 10.3-19.7% respectively. The developed immunoassay for the detection of S. typhi is simple, easy to handle, sensitive specific, reproducible and cost effective in comparison with the commercially existing immunochromatographic assays.

Present work demonstrates the utilization of surface modified polycarbonate (PC) membrane as solid phase and antibody conjugated CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) as fluorescent label for the sensitive and selective detection of Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) in water in a period of 2.5h. PC membrane was surface modified with glycine and activated by EDC/NHS for immobilization of S. typhi specific IgG. Antibody immobilized porous PC membrane was incubated with bacteria contaminated water for immunocapturing of S. typhi. Antibody conjugated QDs were also prepared by using carbodiimide chemistry. Both modified PC membrane and quantum dots were characterized by using various modern analytical tools. It was estimated that 1.95 molecules of QDs were successfully bio-conjugated per unit of IgG. PC membrane with captured bacteria was incubated with prepared IgG conjugated QDs for the formation of sandwich complex. Analysis of the regions of interest (ROI) in fluorescent micrographs showed that newly developed method based on PC and fluorescent QDs has 100 times higher detection sensitivity (100 cells/mL) as compared with detection using conventional dye (FITC) based methods.

A sensitive and rapid method for the detection of pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella typhi) in water sample was developed using core-shell CdSe / ZnS quantum dots (QDs) as fluorescence label. Surface-functionalized core-shell quantum dots were synthesized by successive ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique and were made hydrophilic by ligand exchange method. Developed hydrophobic and hydrophilic QDs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and spectrofluorimetry. Carboxy- terminated QDs were conjugated with bacteria-specific antibodies (S. typhi-specific IgG) for the preparation of photostable fluorescent label and were characterized by various techniques like spectrofluorimetry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for their photoluminescence and successful bioconjugation. Antibody (Ab)-conjugated QDs were incubated with bacteria-contaminated water for S. typhi detection. Microscopic images and spectral profile of bacteria–Ab conjugated QDs complex were recorded by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). A sensitivity of 103 organisms/mL of targeted bacteria (S. typhi) could be attained in a period of about 2 h.

Bioconjugation of quantum dots has resulted in a significant increase in resolution of biological fluorescent labeling. This intrinsic property of quantum dots can be utilized for sensitive detection of target analytes with high sensitivity; including pathogenic bacteria and cancer monitoring. The quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles exhibit prominent emission peaks when excited at 400 nm but on conjugation to model rabbit antigoat antibodies exhibit diminished intensity of emission peak at 600 nm. It shows that photoluminescence intensity of conjugated quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles could permit the detection of bioconjugation. Samples of conjugated and unconjugated quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles were subjected to enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for further confirmation of bioconjugation. In the present study ligand exchange, bioconjugation, fluorescence detection of bioconjugated quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles and further confirmation of bioconjugation by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay has been described.

Surface of nylon membrane was modified by the graft copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) using persulfate and thiosulfate as redox initiator system. Effect of various reaction parameters such as initiator concentration, monomer concentration, polymerization time, and temperature on degree of grafting was also studied. Maximum grafting of 100% was achieved by using equimolar concentration (0.008M) of redox initiator and 0.5M of GMA monomer at 70 degrees C in 60 min. Grafted nylon membranes with various graft levels of GMA were characterized by various techniques such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The GMA grafted nylon (NyM-g-GMA) membranes with different graft levels were evaluated as a support for immobilization of rabbit anti goat antibody (RAG IgG). Antibody (Ab) immobilized NyM-g-GMA membranes were evaluated using ELISA and Bradford protein estimation method. Nylon membrane with 60% graft level showed optimum immobilization of Ab at RAG IgG conc. of 0.625 mu g/mL with low nonspecific binding. Maximum immobilization efficiency (I.E.%) of 56% was observed for membrane with 60% graft level at 50 mu g/mL of RAG IgG in PBS (pH 7.4). Ab immobilized NyM-g-GMA discs were found to be stable up to 6 weeks at 4 degrees C and 2 days at 37 degrees C. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 116: 1700-1709, 2010

Accurate determination of concentration of immunoglobulin (IgG) to tetanus toxoid is important in order to evaluate the immunogenicity of tetanus toxoid vaccines, immune competence in individual patients and to measure the prevalence of immunity in populations. Surface modified polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers were evaluated as a matrix to develop highly sensitive method for the detection of anti-tetanus antibody in a sandwich ELISA format. In the proposed method tetanus toxoid immobilized on modified PAN fibers was used to detect anti-tetanus antibody (raised in horse hence represented as horse anti-tetanus toxoid or HAT-Ab) with horse raddish peroxidase enzyme conjugated with Rabbit anti-Horse IgG (RAH-HRP) as the label within 2.5 h. A sigmoidal pattern for the detection of different concentration of antibody ranging from 1.0 to 0.0001 IU mL−1 was validated. The immunoassay recorded a very high sensitivity as concentration as low as 0.0005 IU mL−1 of HAT-Ab was detected. The intra- and inter-assay precision for 3 parallel measurements of 0.01 and for 0.001 IU mL−1 of antibody varied from 5.4% to 11% and 5.7% to 20% respectively. PAN fibers were also used to qualitatively access the presence of different level of anti-tetanus antibody spiked in human blood. Seroepidemiological studies to measure the immunity against tetanus were conducted with twenty-five human beings belonging to various age groups using modified PAN-ELISA. The sensitivity, specificity and the reproducibility of the developed immunoassay indicate the potential application of modified PAN fibers in the field of immunodiagnostics.

Pendent nitrile groups of multifilamentous polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers were reduced to amino groups using lithium aluminum hydride for different time of reduction and amine content was estimated by performing acid-base titrations. Attenuated total reflection-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) were used for the characterization of the generated amino groups and thermal properties of the reduced fibers, respectively. The surface morphology of the fibers after reduction and immobilization was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The newly formed amino groups of the fibers were activated by using glutaraldehyde for the covalent linking of Goat anti-Rabbit IgG-HRP (GAR-HRP) antibody enzyme conjugate. Modified PAN fibers were evaluated as a matrix for sandwich ELISA by using Goat anti-Rabbit antibody (GAR-IgG), Rabbit anti-Goat (RAG-IgG) as analyte and enzyme conjugate GAR-HRP. The fibers reduced for 24h were able to detect the analyte RAG-IgG at a concentration as low as 3.75ng mL(-1) with 12% skimmed milk as blocking reagent for the optimized concentration of primary antibody GAR-IgG 3microg mL(-1) and peroxidase conjugate GAR-HRP dilution of 8000 fold. The sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility of the developed immunoassay was further established with antibodies present in human blood using Rabbit anti-Human (RAH-IgG) antibody and the corresponding HRP enzyme conjugate. As low as 0.1microL of human blood was sufficient to perform the assay with the modified fibers.

The genetic polymorphism between extreme responders differing for their immunosuppressiveness against Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) virus in chicken was detected using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Minisatellite/Microsatellite Associated Sequence Amplification (MASA) markers. The population mean antibody titre was 1838.14±27.20, while mean antibody titre in high antibody titre (HAb) line and low antibody titre (LAb) line was 2312.9±22.96 and 1367.70±28.52, respectively. Two of the 16 random primers tested (~12%) could detect polymorphism between the HAb and LAb groups. While primer P11 amplified two polymorphic bands and P14 primer amplified only one polymorphic band. Out of these three polymorphic bands, only one band i.e. P11-1824 was specific to LAb group with a frequency of 1.00. Out of three MASA primers, only GTG5 was polymorphic between the groups. The GTG5 amplified two polymorphic loci and one of these two i.e. GTG5-1830 was specific for HAb group. However, comparatively lower proportion (~12%) of RAPD primers were found to be polymorphic as compared to MASA primers (~33%), but the proportion of polymporphic loci amplified was higher (25%) with RAPD primers as compared to MASA primers (20%).

Genetic polymorphism within as well as between the high antibody titre (HAb) group and low antibody titre (LAb) group against Ranikhet disease (RD) virus was detected using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Microsatellite/Minisatellite Associated Sequence Amplification (MASA) assay. Mean III titres (log 2n) in HAb and LAb groups were 7.27±0.14 and 1.66±0.17, respectively. The respective HI-GMT levels in HAb and LAb groups were 162.8±18.03 and 3.32±0.33, respectively. Four out of 16 random primers screened using pooled DNA samples for HAb and LAb groups, detected polymorphism between HAb and LAb groups. Using these 4 polymorphic primers, 8 group specific RAPD markers were identified. Out of these 8 markers, seven markers were specific to HAb group, while 1 marker was specific to LAb group. OPP03 400 marker was identified as fixed HAb specific marker. Two MASA primers were also used to detect the polymorphism between HAb and LAb lines. Though both the MASA primers amplified reproducible and distinct amplification profile, but none of these primers could detect polymorphism between HAb and LAb group.