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Detection of pathogenic bacteria that pose a great risk to human health requires a rapid, convenient, reliable, and sensitive detection method. In this study, we developed a selective filtration method using monoclonal antibody (MAb)-magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) nanocomposites for the rapid and sensitive colorimetric detection of Salmonella typhimurium. The method contains two key steps: the immunomagnetic separation of the bacteria using MAb-MNP nanocomposites and the filtration of the nanocomposite-bound bacteria. Color signals from the nanocomposites remaining on the membrane were measured, which reflected the amount of bacteria in test samples. Immunomagnetic capture efficiencies of 8 to 90 % for various concentrations of the pathogen (2 × 10(4)-2 × 10(1) cells) were obtained. After optimization of the method, 2 × 10(1) cells of S. typhimurium in pure culture solution was detectable as well as in artificially inoculated vegetables (100 cells/g). The method was confirmed to be highly specific to S. typhimurium without cross-reaction to other pathogenic bacteria and could be concluded within 45 min, yielding results in a shorter or similar time period as compared with recently reported antibody immobilized on magnetic-particle-based methods. This study also demonstrated direct application of MAb-MNP nanocomposites without a dissociation step of bacteria from magnetic beads in colorimetric assays in practice.

To analyze aflatoxin (), we dissolved infant formula in warm water and cleaned it by using an immunoaffinity column (IAC). The amount of was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection. was detected in 281 of 439 samples. Thus, the detection rate of was 64.0%. The average concentration of in positive samples was 2.6 ng/kg (of prepared formula). The estimated daily intake (EDI) of through infant formula was 0.087-0.646 ng/kg body weight/day and the additional number of cases of liver cancer associated with exposure to would be 0.003-0.020 cancer cases/1,000,000. Because there is less than 1 cancer case/1,000,000 per year, the exposure to through infant formula in Korea is considered to be an unlikely human health concern.

The purpose of this study was to analyze microbiological hazards for plants, cultivation environments and personal hygiene of perilla leaf farms at the harvesting stage. Samples were collected from three perilla leaf farms(A, B, C) located in Gyeongnam, Korea and tested for sanitary indications, fungi and pathogenic bacteria(Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogens, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus). As a result, total bacteria and coliform in perilla leaf were detected at the levels of 4.4~5.2 and 3.4~4.3 log CFU/g, respectively, but E. coli was not detected in all samples. Among the pathogenic bacteria, B. cereus(perilla leaf: 2.0~2.4 log CFU/g, stem: 1.4~2.1 log CFU/g, water: 0.7 log CFU/ml, soil: 4.2~5.0 log CFU/g, hands: 3.0 log CFU/ hand, gloves: 2.1~2.4 log CFU/100 , glothes: 1.5~2.8 log CFU/100 ) and S. aureus(3.4 log CFU/hand) were detected in all samples and worker`s hand from farm A, respectively. However, other pathogenic bacteria were not detected. This study demonstrates that perilla leaf at the harvesting stage was significantly contaminated with microbial hazards.

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) have been widely used to quantify aflatoxins in food, but these methods are expensive, time-consuming, unsuitable for analysis of the routine screening of large sample numbers and require derivatization and high level techniques to perform. The objective of this study is to detect aflatoxins in a large number of foods by a high efficient analytical system of combined enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for screening and LC/MS/MS for confirmation. The samples spiked individually with aflatoxin (0.5 and 1.0 ng/g) and total aflatoxins (10 ng/g) were analyzed by ELISA and LC/MS/ MS, and the recoveries for ELISA and LC/MS/MS were 71.8~119.2% and 70.8~135.3%, respectively. A total of 378 samples (grains, nuts, soybean and fermented soybean foods, pepper and fermented pepper foods) were purchased from the six major cities in Korea and analyzed by ELISA-LC/MS/MS system. Twenty two (5.8%; peanut: 11, pistachio: 2, walnut: 6, almond: 1, pepper powder: 1, pepper paste: 1) out of 378 samples were screened as aflatoxin B1 positive by ELISA, but, 4 (1.1%; peanut: 2, pistachio:1, pepper powder: 1) out of the 22 samples screened were confirmed as aflatoxins positive at levels of 1.02~52.79 ng/g by LC/MS/MS. ELISA-LC/MS/MS system provides a more rapid, accurate and cost-effective method for the detection of aflatoxins in large number of samples.

Herein, we have developed a label -free and homogeneous fluo rescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) immunoassay for the detection of neopterin (NPT) , which is an early and valuable biochemical marker of cellular immunity. Owing to intrinsic fluorescence properties of antibody and NPT , anti -NPT antibody (anti -NPT) and analyte played roles as the respective donor and acceptor in the FRET immunoassay. As the concentration of NPT increases, the fluorescence intensity at ~350 nm decreases owing to the formation of increasing amounts of the anti -NPT /NPT complex in which FRET takes place. The assay system was found to display a high specificity and a low detection limit (0.14 ng mL -1 ) for NPT . A practical application of the FRET immuno assay system was demonstrated by its use in the detection of NPT in spiked human serum samples. The observations made in these efforts show that the homogeneous FRET immunoassay strategy, which requires a simple sample preparation procedure, serves as a powerful tool for the rapid and sensitive quantitative determination of NPT. Keywords: Ne opterin, antibody, FRET immunoassay, biomarker, Label -free, Homogeneous .