Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers
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Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana XULA Digital Commons XULA Digital Commons Festival of Scholars 2021 Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers Jennifer Tran Xavier University of Louisiana Dr. Mehnaaz Ali Xavier University of Louisiana Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xula_fos Part of the Biology Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, and the Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Tran, Jennifer and Ali, Dr. Mehnaaz, "Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers" (2021). Festival of Scholars. 28. https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xula_fos/28 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Festival of Scholars by an authorized administrator of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Transcript of Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers
Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana
XULA Digital Commons XULA Digital Commons
Festival of Scholars
2021
Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers
Jennifer Tran Xavier University of Louisiana
Dr. Mehnaaz Ali Xavier University of Louisiana
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xula_fos
Part of the Biology Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, and the Environmental
Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Tran, Jennifer and Ali, Dr. Mehnaaz, "Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers" (2021). Festival of Scholars. 28. https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xula_fos/28
This Book is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Festival of Scholars by an authorized administrator of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Detection of Chemical Pollutants by Use of Aptamers
Presented by: Jennifer TranMentor: Dr. Mehnaaz Ali
✘ “Cancer Alley” - Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
✘ 4 billion pounds of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) have been produced and applied worldwide since 1940.
✘ EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) records indicate -more than 55,000 containers of radioactive wastes were dumped in the Pacific Ocean between 1946 and 1970. -almost 34,000 containers of radioactive wastes were dumped off the East Coast of the United States from 1951 to 1962.
https://www.propublica.org/article/welcome-to-cancer-alley-where-toxic-air-is-about-to-get-worsehttps://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/persistent-organic-pollutants-global-issue-global-responsehttps://www.epa.gov/ocean-dumping/learn-about-ocean-dumpinghttps://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/ddt-brief-history-and-status
Impact of global toxins
Common Environmental Toxins
✘ Heavy metals such as Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, Pb, Cr
✘ Mercury (Hg)✘ Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)✘ Bisphenol A (BPA)
✘ The “Dirty” Dozen
https://www.who.int/ceh/capacity/POPs.pdf
Common Methods of Detection✘ Liquid Chromatography
✘ Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) based competitive immunoassay
to detect DDT
✘ Using fluorescent light to detect mercury
✘ Wet digestion to detect cadmium, lead, and chromium
pollutants
Challenges for Detection✘ Liquid Chromatography
✗ Require sophisticated equipment operated by highly skilled professionals
✘ Scanning Electron Microscopy typically used to analyze/detect pollutants in fish gills.✗ Requires a minimum of 24 hours of preparation
✘ Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) based competitive immunoassay ✗ Requires antibody production and harvesting
✗ Tedious✗ Expensive✗ Limited Lifetime
✘ Aptamers are molecules made of oligonucleotides or peptides that bind to a specific target molecule.
✘ SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment) is the method to progressively purify a library of nucleic acid ligands through rounds of partitioning and amplification.
What are aptamers?✘ Aptus = to fit (Latin)✘ Meros = part (Greek)
https://medium.com/@ndghansah/aptamers-from-louisville-505d3d037ce6
Currently used aptamer based detection
strategies
Bisphenol A
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Polybrominated di- Ph ethers (PBDEs)
✘ Easier mechanism - Developing an aptamer that detects benzo[a]pyrene instead of the current detection using Pseudomonas aeruginosa which requires growing cultures of bacteria.
✘ Antibodies require time to harvest to be used in the gold nanoparticles (GNPs) based competitive immunoassay for detection of DDT.
Detection of benzo[a]pyrene and DDT using aptamers
Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)
● Proof of concept using existing aptamers for
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
● Design methods for the selection of aptamer for
benzo[a]pyrene
Current Goals
I would like to thank the Chemistry Department and BUILD faculty members at Xavier University of Louisiana for their support. We acknowledge NIH BUILD Program for providing funding # NIH
5TL4GM118968-07 and # NIH5RL5GM118966-07.
