Nanoparticle-Based Diagnostic 3D-Protein-Biochip for Candida Albicans

摘要

Candida albicans is the most frequent causative organism of fungal infections in humankind, and may lead both to superficial and to systemic mycosis. The death rate attributed to candidemia ranges up to 40 % and difficulties in establishing an early and specific diagnosis are among the recognized reasons for such high mortality. The conventional diagnostic approach consists of blood culture, which requires a couple of days to establish the correct diagnosis. Therefore, serological diagnostic tests for antibody or antigen detection have been used e.g. in the form of latex agglutination tests [1]. Several tests have been compared with respect to sensitivity and specifity by Mitsutake et al. [2] and by Sendid et al. [3] and the authors suggest combining at least two tests to increase the accuracy of diagnosis of systemic candidiasis. Sendid et al. found a disparity between circulation of antigen and antibody response.