This disclosure contemplates detecting antimicrobial heteroresistance to guide antibiotic or other antimicrobial therapy. In certain embodiments, this disclosure contemplates avoiding a monotherapy with antibiotics to which an individual bacterial isolate is heteroresistant, because this can lead to treatment failure. Thus, in certain embodiments, one uses a combination of antibiotics to which a bacterium is individually heteroresistant.

The present disclosure provides a simple and secure apparatus and a simple and secure method for selectively detecting a tomato pathogenic fungus. The tomato pathogenic fungus detecting apparatus according to the present disclosure is characterized by including an artificial cell wall, a test sample solution inlet provided above the artificial cell wall, and a culture solution storage part provided under the artificial cell wall, wherein a culture solution contains a 15 mM to 30 mM buffer solution of a citrate salt in the culture solution storage part, and the culture solution has a pH of 5 to 5.5.

Coccidioidomycosis is most often diagnosed serologically and the quantitative complement-fixing antibody test (CF) is considered prognostically useful. Because CF is complex, labor-intensive, and poorly standardized, an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) alternative would be attractive. The present invention features an antibody-binding domain that is restricted to a 200 amino acid recombinant peptide of the known antigen responsible for CF activity. Overlapping truncations of this peptide do not bind CF antibodies, suggesting that the responsible epitope(s) are conformational. Further, anchoring the antigenic peptide to the ELISA plate by means of a C-terminal tag instead of allowing the peptide to randomly adhere to the plastic plate improves sensitivity of antibody detection by one to two logs in different sera. The newly developed ELISA shows a significant quantitative correlation with CF. This ELISA shows potential as the basis for a new quantitative assay for coccidioidal antibodies.

The disclosure relates to a zearalenone-deoxynivalenol dual-channel immunoquantitative test strip and belongs to the technical field of immunoassay rapid detection. The disclosure prepares fluorescent probes by labeling with fluorescent microspheres, including a fluorescent microsphere-zearalenone monoclonal antibody, a fluorescent microsphere-deoxynivalenol monoclonal antibody and a fluorescent microsphere-goat anti-mouse second antibody. A zearalenone artificial antigen, a fluorescent microsphere artificial antigen and a goat anti-mouse second antibody are respectively sprayed on a nitrocellulose membrane to serve as a detection line T1, a detection line T2 and a quality control line C to prepare the immunochromatographic test strip; a competitive immunoassay method is adopted, and zearalenone and deoxynivalenol in samples are quantitatively analyzed at the same time by reading fluorescence values of the detection lines on a fluorescence immunoanalyzer. This method for preparing fluorescent probes not only overcomes the shortcoming of difficult storage of colloidal gold in the test strip technology, but also is simple, efficient and high in sensitivity.

Presented herein, in certain aspects, are compositions that comprise novel toxin proteins, the nucleic acids that encode them, and/or portions thereof, which toxins are expressed by fungi of the Mucorales order and are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of Mucormycosis. Also presented herein, in certain aspects, are methods of detecting the presence or absence of novel fungal toxins and/or the nucleic acids that encode them in a sample, which methods can be used to identify the presence of Mucorales in a subject. Methods and/or compositions presented herein can be used to prevent and/or treat a Mucorales infection.

The invention relates to a method for the quantification of the total gluten content of grains in food samples. Areas of application are primarily the food industry, service laboratories and government test laboratories or biotechnology. The invention aims to quickly and cost-effectively determine the total gluten content in foods with just one measurement. We include a method with which, based on the detection of prolamins and glutelins, all potentially coeliac-relevant gluten protein fractions in food samples are quantified as a total corresponding to their mass. The method is based on the joint use of specific prolamin and glutelin antibodies as a combined conjugate according to the invention for the detection of the total gluten content. In addition, the individual antibody conjugates are thinned so that the contribution of the individual antibodies to the total signal strength corresponds to the proportion of the gluten fraction that they each detect.

Described herein are engineered microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules, kits comprising the same and uses thereof. Some particular embodiments of the microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules comprise a carbohydrate recognition domain of mannose-binding lectin, or a fragment thereof, linked to a portion of a Fc region. In some embodiments, the microbe-targeting molecules or microbe-binding molecules can be conjugated to a substrate, e.g., a magnetic microbead, forming a microbe-targeting substrate (e.g., a microbe-targeting magnetic microbead). Such microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates and the kits comprising the same can bind and/or capture of a microbe and/or microbial matter thereof, and can thus be used in various applications, e.g., diagnosis and/or treatment of an infection caused by microbes such as sepsis in a subject or any environmental surface. Microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates can be regenerated after use by washing with a low pH buffer or buffer in which calcium is insoluble.

A barrel defines a channel, and has an opening into the channel, and an outlet from the channel. A porous carrier disposed within the channel carries an albumin. A cellulosic stationary phase is disposed within the channel between the carrier and the distal region of the barrel. A lateral flow platform is coupled to the barrel such that a sample pad of the lateral flow platform is in fluid communication with the outlet. A sponge, coupled to a plunger, is configured to hold saliva. The plunger is dimensioned to compress the sponge within the channel such that the saliva is driven (i) out of the sponge and through the carrier, dissolving at least some of the albumin, (ii) with the dissolved albumin, into the stationary phase, and (iii) as an eluate, out of the stationary phase, through the outlet, and onto the sample pad. Other embodiments are also described.

The method for particle analysis includes a first magnetic susceptibility measurement step S4 of measuring a volume magnetic susceptibility of each of first particles p1; an encapsulation treatment step S5 of performing an encapsulation treatment so that the first particles p1 encapsulate an encapsulation target component pt smaller than the first particles p1; a second magnetic susceptibility measurement step S8 of measuring a volume magnetic susceptibility of each of second particles p2 as an analysis target that are the first particles p1 after the encapsulation treatment; and a step S9 of analyzing whether or not the encapsulation target component pt is encapsulated in the second particles p2 based on a result of measurement in the first magnetic susceptibility measurement step S4 and a result of measurement in the second magnetic susceptibility measurement step S8.

The present invention provides sensor cells comprising a receptor that binds to an analyte indicative of the presence of an agent, where binding of the analyte to the receptor triggers a detection event that is indicative of the presence of the agent. In certain embodiments, the detection event is appearance of a reporter detectable by the naked eye. The present invention also provides uses of such sensor cells for detecting the presence of an agent in a sample.