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The aim of this study was to isolate Babesia canis soluble antigens and to investigate the effect of their conjugates with gold nanoparticles on the immunogenicity in laboratory animals.A procedure was developed for isolating and purifying B. canis antigens. The isolated culture antigen of B. canis 495 was coupled to gold nanoparticles, and the conjugate was used to immunize laboratory mice.Western blotting showed that the resultant antiserum specifically recognized the proteins of the B. canis strains isolated from naturally infected dogs. The antibody titer, the respiratory activity of peritoneal macrophages, the proliferative activity of splenocytes, and the production of cytokines were maximal when the animals were immunized with the antigen-nanoparticle conjugate emulsified in complete Freund's adjuvant. Without adjuvant, the babesial antigen was weakly immunogenic.Therefore, the use of gold nanoparticles as an antigen carrier induced a broad immune response involving both cellular and humoral responses. The antibodies raised by the proposed procedure are potentially effective at immunodetection of Babesia canis infections in dogs.

It has been demonstrated that electroacoustic analysis with polyclonal antibodies can be used for bacteriophage detection. The frequency dependences of the real and imaginary parts of electrical impedance of a resonator with a viral suspension with antibodies were shown to be essentially different from the dependences of a resonator with control viral suspension without antibodies. It was shown that ΦAl-Sp59b bacteriophages were detected with the use of antibodies in the presence of foreign virus particles. The ΦAl-Sp59b bacteriophage content in the analyzed suspension was ~1010–106 phages/mL; the time of analysis was no more than 5 min. The optimally informative parameter for obtaining reliable information was the change in the real or imaginary part of electrical impedance at a fixed frequency near the resonance upon the addition of specific antibodies to the analyzed suspension. It was demonstrated that the interaction between bacteriophages and antibodies can be recorded, offering good prospects for the development of a biological sensor for liquid-phase identification and virus detection.

Penetration of ivermectin adsorbed on the surface of colloidal gold particles or included in micelles to phagocytic immune system cells was studied. Detection of the preparation in the cells was carried out by an immunochemical method, employing miniantibodies to ivermectin obtained from a combinatory phage library and by a chromatographic method on the HPLC system "Stayer". It was found that ivermectin adsorbed on colloidal gold particles was accumulated in the cells most intensively.

We studied the capacity of colloidal gold for enhancing specific and nonspecific immune response in laboratory animals (rabbits, rats, and mice) immunized with antigens of various nature. The antibody titers obtained with colloidal gold as a carrier were higher as compared to the standard immunization techniques (free antigen or Freund's adjuvant). Application of colloidal gold increased nonspecific immune responses as well: lysozyme concentration in the blood, activity of the complement system proteins, as well as phagocytic and bactericidal activities. The obtained antibodies were tested by immunodot assay using gold markers. Immunization of the animals with colloidal gold conjugates with haptens as well as complete antigens was shown to induce formation of highly active antibodies without using other antigens such as complete Freund's adjuvant. In addition, antigen quantities for animal immunization with colloidal gold was by one order of magnitude lower as compared to the complete Freund's adjuvant immunization. This fact can point to direct adjuvant activity of colloidal gold.

Serum titer achieved while producing antibodies to Y. pseudotuberculosis surface antigens with the use of colloid gold as adjuvant was as high as that achieved with the use of Freund's complete adjuvant (1:10,240). Still the amount of the antigen introduced when colloid gold particles were used as adjuvant was lower by 2 orders. The study revealed that colloid gold used as antigen carrier activated the phagocytic activity of lymphoid cells.

Some optimized methods of purifying actin from animal, plant, and bacterial cells were developed. Variants of the preparation of antiactin antibodies are described which use both traditional methods of immunization and phase display technology and antigen adsorption on colloidal gold particles. The conjugates of colloidal gold with phalloidin and heavy meromyosin as well as with antibodies were proposed. It was shown that these markers make it possible to reliably identify actins of different origin by the methods of light, and electron microscopy and dot-analysis.