Tag Archives: Mahmoud Sheikh-Zeinoddin

Detecting Ochratoxin A in agricultural products with gold nanoparticles

Iranian researchers have developed a fast, inexpensive way to test for a cancer-causing toxicant found in some agricultural products. From a Jan. 5, 2015 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link has been removed),

Researchers from Isfahan University of Technology used gold nanoparticles in the production of a detection kit to find cancerous toxicant in agricultural products (“Ultrasensitive and quantitative gold nanoparticle-based immunochromatographic assay for detection of ochratoxin A in agro-products”).

The use of the kit increases speed, sensitivity and ease of application.

A Jan. 5, 2015 Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) news release, which originated the news item, describes Ochratoxin A and the kit,

Humans and animals are always threatened by various toxicants naturally produced in different food products. Ochratoxin A is a type of toxicant that is produced by some types of fungi, which has been classified in human cancerous materials (Group B2) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

There are many methods to detect this toxicant, but in addition to high costs, these methods are time-consuming and require skillful and expert people to carry out the tests. The fact is that in many places where the detection of ochratoxin A is a necessity, there is no equipment and the detection process fails.

Increasing the detection speed, ease of application, and reducing costs are among the advantages of the method proposed by the researchers. Obtaining technical knowledge for the production of various detection kits based on this method for different materials is another achievement of the researchers.

In this research, a fast and ultra-sensitive detection kit has been produced based on immunochromatography method. To this end, test tapes have been designed and produced by using gold nanoparticles markers, and the results are obtained by placing the sample on the tape after 15 minutes. Gold nanoparticles create red color after combining with the toxicant and the color is visible by naked eye too.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the published research,

Ultrasensitive and quantitative gold nanoparticle-based immunochromatographic assay for detection of ochratoxin A in agro-products by Marjan Majdinasab, Mahmoud Sheikh-Zeinoddin, Sabihe Soleimanian-Zad, Peiwu Li, Qi Zhang, Xin Li, and Xiaoqian Tang. Journal of Chromatography B Volume 974, 1 January 2015, Pages 147–154. doi:10.1016/j.jchromb.2014.10.034

This paper is behind a paywall.