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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Graham BonwickORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a conference proceedings (inc. abstract) that has been published in its final definitive form by UCT Prague Press, 2015.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
In recent years the occurrence of fungal toxins within food and feed has become of increasing concern. In particular, toxins produced by fungal species that contaminate grain products has become a focus of attention as levels are increasing and cause potential health issues. Specifically, fungal toxins produced by the Fusarium species are becoming more common. This research study focusses on Type A trichothecenes: T-2 and HT-2 toxin, as so far these toxins have not been widely investigated. The development of rapid detection methods is desirable as a means of protecting the integrity of the food supply chain and populations from the effects of these Class 1 carcinogens. Aptamers are biomolecular ligands composed of nucleic acids. They can be selected to bind specifically to bacterial cells, viruses, proteins and smaller molecular targets such as pesticides, organic dyes and biotoxins. Once developed, they can subsequently be exploited similar to more traditional biomolecules such as antibodies. The initial experimental work focuses on optimising a novel method based on the selective exponential enrichment of ligands (SELEX). The procedure (capture SELEX) uses magnetic beads to capture the aptamers within an initial random pool that specifically bind to the target molecule. The advantage of this procedure is that the target molecule does not have to be bound to a solid support. As a result, problems such as recognition by the aptamers of either the bond used to link the small molecule target to the solid support or any linker molecules are avoided. Purification and separation steps to remove unwanted and non-binding aptamers are also simplified. The results presented confirm that the selection procedure is capable of producing aptamers with specificity for Type A trichothecenes.
Author(s): Lock S-I, Coleman R, McDowall I, Birch C, Bonwick GA
Editor(s): Pulkrabová, J; Tomaniová, M; Nielen, M; Hajslova, J
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: 7th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis
Year of Conference: 2015
Print publication date: 03/11/2015
Acceptance date: 04/09/2015
Date deposited: 14/06/2019
Publisher: UCT Prague Press
