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Gold nanoparticles have received considerable attention in recent years because of their promising applications in diagnostic imaging, biosensors, biolabels, and drug and gene delivery systems. The chemical methods of nanoparticle synthesis are the most widely and traditionally used methods. Production of nanoparticles by chemical methods causes contamination from precursor chemicals due to the use of toxic solvents and generation of hazardous by-products. On the other hand, the physical methods have low yield and high cost. Hence, there is an increasing need to develop low cost, non-toxic, biocompatible and environmentally benign processes for synthesis of metallic nanoparticles where the biological approaches for synthesis of nanoparticles gain importance. In this study, we investigated the biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using Streptomyces sp. ERI-3. Streptomycessp.ERI-3 was isolated from the soil of Ahar Copper Mine (Ahar, Iran) and its biomass was incubated at 28ºC on a rotary shaker (200 rpm) for 48 h. The nanoparticles were characterized by means of UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).The nanoparticles exhibited maximum absorbance at 540 nm (special wavelength of gold nanoparticles) in UV-vis spectroscopy. The XRD spectrum of gold nanoparticles exhibited 2Ө values corresponding to the gold nanocrystals. The TEM micrographs revealed the extracellular and attached to cell surface formation of gold nanoparticles in the size range of 50-100 nm with spherical morphology.  

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Due to the wide applications of gold nanoparticles, there have been great demands for their synthesis recently. Chemical methods produce pure and Non-dispersive nanoparticles, but these are quite expensive and potentially toxic to the environment. It has been suggested that the use of biological organisms and their components could be a suitable alternative for the production of nanoparticle in an eco-friendly manner (green synthesis). Using plant extracts for nanoparticle synthesis can be advantageous over other biological processes because it eliminates the elaborate process of maintaining cell cultures and can also be suitably scaled up for large-scale synthesis. In this study leaf extracts of Water cress, were used for green synthesis of gold nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles were formed by treating an aqueous HAuCl4 solution by different amount of plant leaf extract as reducing agent at different temperatures. UV–visible spectroscopy was used for monitoring of the reaction progress. The synthesized gold nanoparticles were characterized with Dynamic light scattering (DLS) size analyzer, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that only a few minutes were required for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles at 60 °C and 80 °C by 1000 μl of plant extract, suggesting appropriate reaction rates in comparable to those of nanoparticle synthesis by chemical methods. TEM images showed that spherical nanoparticles (size, 10–50 nm) were obtained at higher temperatures and leaf broth concentrations. The analysis of FTIR bands show that the Polysaccharides and proteins are probably involved in the bio reduction and synthesis of nanoparticles.

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Aptamers, DNA or RNA single-stranded sequences, have different applications in biological investigations, such as apatsensors, due to their many advantages including high specificity and affinity, cost-effectiveness and easy synthesis. In this study, an aptasensor was designed based on the changes in the SPR spectra of gold nanoparticle, in order to detect carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) cancer indicator as a marker for breast cancer. In the presence of aptamer, gold nanoparticles were stable, SPR spectrum of gold nanoparticle was unchanged after adding NaCl. However, in the presence of CEA as a cancer marker, aptamer binds to the target molecule and by adding NaCl consequently the SPR spectrum of gold nanoparticles is changed. The results of this study showed that the designed aptasensor enables the detection of CEA over a range of 50 ng ml^-1. The limit of detection was about 22.75 ng ml^-1. It seems this aptasensor can be used in detection of carcinoembryonic antigen cancer marker.

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Aflatoxin B1 is a type of mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus fungi during food production and storage. Aflatoxins have many toxic effects on the body that cause mutagens, teratogens and have high carcinogenic properties that cause cancer in the liver and other organs. Although conventional device methods for measuring aflatoxin B1 in food are sensitive and accurate, they have disadvantages such as high diagnostic time, high cost, the need for a trained user, and the creation of false positive results. Therefore, the development of new measuring methods has been prioritized by researchers. Among these measurement methods is the use of biosensors, which are fast, simple and more affordable and are used in the food industry today. In this work, a colorimetric optical aptasensor using gold nanoparticles with appropriate sensitivity and high selectivity was used to detect aflatoxin B1 in serum and buffer. For this purpose, gold nanoparticles were synthesized by reducing HAuCl₄ by sodium citrate (with a size of 14.40 nm and a zeta potential of -27.5). In this method, the protective effect of DNA sequence on the surface of gold nanoparticles has been used in the presence or absence of aflatoxin with the intervention of salt and the characteristic of visual color change. The detection limit of this method was estimated to be 50 ng/L and its linear range was 200-28000 ng/L. As a result, the designed aptasensor can be used for quick identification and screening of this toxin in contaminated food.
 

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Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with unique optical properties, such as easy operation and visualized assay, have a great ability to detect different types of analytes. Today, the use of gold nanoparticles has wide applications in the field of medicine and biotechnology, including the detection of microorganisms that cause contamination in water, air and food and it is considered a suitable alternative for chemical and physical methods. New technologies in the design of biosensors based on GNPs provide the ability to identify biological compounds accurately and quickly. One of these technologies is a detection sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR), which based on its optical properties, is capable of very sensitive and specific measurement of biomolecule interactions without time delay. This technology can quantify in a short time the properties of biomolecular mediators (such as oligonucleotides, proteins and bacteria) on the surface, including reaction speed, tendency and concentration of surface mediators. In this review, while investigating the surface plasmon properties of gold nanoparticles, the simple diagnostic applications of gold nanoparticles based on the localized surface plasmon (LSPR) method and detection in biomedicine.

 

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Determination of antibiotic residues in food including honey is very important. To data, various methods have been developed to determination of antibiotics in honey and other animal products. In recent years, the fabrication of electrochemical biosensors in combination with nanomaterial has attracted much attention. In the present study, an impedometric biosensor based on nanomaterial including reduced oxide grapheme (RGO) and gold nanoparticles (GNP) was developed for antibiotic detection of tetracycline in honey samples. Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques were used to evaluate the working electrode surface. Peak current values in different modes were 0.034, 0.048, 0.09, 0.020 and 0.015 μA for unmodified electrode, RGO, GNP, aptamer and antibiotic, respectively. Biosensor characteristics including reproducibility, reproducibility, stability, and selectivity were evaluated using resistance charge transfer data, the results showed that they were acceptable. In order to calculate recovery percentage, concentrations of 1×10^-9 and 1×10^-11 M were prepared from tetracycline and injected into honey samples. The results showed that the proposed biosensor provides 94.1% to 104.4% recovery rate for tetracycline in honey samples.

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Milk, from its production to consumption, is exposed to a variety of microbial and chemical contaminants. Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is one of the most important contaminants in milk, which has always received attention due to its carcinogenic and destructive effects on the consumer. Accordingly, the rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective identification of AFM1 in milk is essential. In the present paper, an electrochemical aptasensor based on screen printed electrode (SPE) modified with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was proposed to identify AFM1 in cow milk samples. SPE was activated by applying a potential within the range of -1.5 to +1 V versus the reference electrode at a scan rate of 200 mV/s for 5 continuous cycles in the 0.5 M sulfuric acid and 0.1 M potassium chloride solution. Changes of the electrode surface at different stages of preparation were assessed using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. Using CV in optimal conditions, it was found that the aptasensor presents a concentration range of 100-700 ng/l and a limit of detection (LOD) of 50 ng/l.  There was a linear relationship between changes of the current peak (∆I) and analyte concentration. This relationship follows the regression equation of ∆I=0.0209C+2.14 (R²=0.9897). Calculation of the relative standard deviation (RSD=3.2%) indicated the acceptable repeatability of the electrochemical aptasensor. The current peak was obtained to be 7.4% in the investigation of RSD reproducibility, indicating the good reproducibility of the electrochemical aptasensor. The obtained results showed that the aptasensor response after 8 days has only reduced by 7% compared to the first day, indicating the desirable stability of the aptasensor. The recovery percentage range for cow milk samples at concentrations of 100 and 200 ng/l was obtained to be 86.5 and 93%, respectively, showing the acceptable recovery percentage of the electrochemical aptasensor.