Patent Application
20200263226
The Sequence Listing, which is a part of the present disclosure, includes a text file comprising primer nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences of the present invention. The subject matter of the Sequence Listing is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The information recorded in computer readable form is identical to the written sequence listing.
This invention relates to a method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection.
A wide range of infectious agents, including infectious proteins, spore forming bacteria, vegetative bacteria, fungus and viruses have major impacts in medical settings. The process to remove infectious organisms or render them non-infectious from medical equipment makes use of a wide range of sterilization devices or equipment and disinfection devices and processes. The CDC lists examples of infectious agents and microorganisms by resistance to standard disinfection and sterilization processes. See Table 1 below from CDC's Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities, 2008.
Some infectious agents, such as the HIV virus, may be easy to remove from medical equipment. Many infectious agents, including vegetative bacteria, are moderately difficult to eliminate. Other infectious agents, such as prions, can only be destroyed by extremely harsh conditions that damage and/or destroy modern medical equipment. Failure to eliminate infectious agents from medical equipment before use can put patients at extreme risk of injury and death.
Some conventional methods to determine if sterilization equipment functions effectively may rely on FDA approved Biologic Indicator process (BI strips) in a multi-step process. This widely accepted conventional process starts with filter papers infused with a defined number of bacterial spores (BI strips). The BI strips are subjected to a standard cycle by the sterilization equipment or device, e.g., an ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization, radiation, or steam sterilization equipment which is being qualified. After the sterilization process is completed, the treated strips are then placed in a defined bacterial media for growth, frequently for days to weeks. If no growth is seen after the defined period, the sterilization process by the medical equipment being certified is declared a success. Together this combination of supplies and techniques is the approved process to qualify sterilization equipment in positive or negative process. If there is growth, the sterilization equipment fails and if there is no growth the sterilization equipment passes.
The conventional biologic indicator tests may use one of three different species of bacteria. The standard species used to test the effectiveness of ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization is B. atrophaeus. To test the effectiveness of gamma radiation sterilization, the bacteria species used is B. pumilis. To test the effectiveness of steam sterilization the bacteria species used is G. stearothermophilus. However, the three species that are used to qualify sterilization capacity of equipment are not bacteria that commonly cause disease in humans. Instead, the species are surrogate species, strains of soil bacteria that form high persistent spores. They are used instead of medically relevant infectious agents, because, Inter alia, the spores of the bacteria are extremely difficult to damage such that they can no longer replicate, and if for some reason a health care worker or patient accidently comes in contact with the spores through use or on improperly cleaned equipment, there is very little chance that the human will become ill. As spores from the surrogate species are scientifically known to be more difficult to destroy than medically relevant species, such as Polio or S. aureus, e.g., Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureaus (MRSA), when the sterilization equipment is qualified to destroy all spores on a BI test strip, the FDA accepts that the equipment is also able to destroy all organisms that rank lower for resistance to sterilization.
The conventional methods discussed above used to qualify effective sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection may only measure the ability of the surrogate organisms to grow after sterilization treatment. However, such conventional methods do not indicate how the surrogate organisms are damaged and/or destroyed resulting in the absence of growth. Conventional surrogate testing methods also require the accurate production, storage, transport and handling of 10 thousand to 100 million pure bacteria spores, proper control of growth medias, extended period of growth of the specific spores and careful protection of all growth materials for environmental contamination to qualify if all the test surrogate organisms were completely eliminated. If any component of the process is not vigorously controlled, the sterilization qualification could give false positive or false negative results. False positive results will trigger extensive effort to unnecessarily repair sterilization equipment as well as the recall of days or weeks of sterilized medical equipment and the patients treated with such equipment. False negative results are worse because they will result in defective sterilization equipment being used and the resulting contaminated medical equipment endangering patients.
For other infectious organisms, such as members of the bacterial genera Clostridium, Staphylococcus or fungal genera Trichophyton or Candida, and the like, specific tests for each genera may be based on similar fundamentals. See Table 2 below for a list of common bacteria and fungus genera and species having an impact on human medicine.
Bacillus
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus curophaeus
Bacillus pumilis
Geobacillus stearothermophilus
(formerly B. stearothermophilus)
Bacillus anthracis
Bacillus cereus
Clostridium
Clostridium sporogenes
botulinum when testing the
Clostridium tetani
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium perfringens
Clostridium difficile
Clostridium novyl
Mycobacterium
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium africanum
Mycobacterium caprae
Mycobacterium kansasii
Mycobacterium ulcerans
Mycobacterium interjectum
Mycobacterium leprae
Mycobacterium lepromatosis
Mycobacterium terrae
Mycobacterium gastri
Staphylococcus
Staphylococcus aureus
Staphylococcus cupitis
Staphylococcus epidermidis
Staphylococcus haemolyticus
Staphylococcus lugdunensis
Staphylococcus saccharolyticus
Staphylococcus saprophyticus
Staphylococcus auricularis
Salmonella
Salmonella enterica
Enterococcus
Enterococcus faecalis
Enterococcus faecium
Enterococcus gallinarum
Enterococcus hirae
Enterococcus malodoratus
Escherichia
Escherichia coil
Escherichia fergusonii
Helicobacter
Helicobacter pylori
Helicobacter hepaticus
Helicobacter bills
Helicobacter ganmani
Klebsiella
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Klebsiella oxytoca
Neisseria
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Neisseria meningitidis
Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pseudomonas mendocina
Pseudomonas fluorescens
Pseudomonas putida
Trichophyton
Trichophyton rubrum
(Fungus)
Trichophyton tonsurans
Trichophyton interdigitale
Trichophyton mentagrophytes
Trichaphyton concentricum
Candida
Candida albicans
(Fungus)
Candida dubliniensis
Candida tropicalis
tropicalis, working synergistically
marcescens. May cause or
Candida auris
Examples of standardized methods for sterilization or disinfection (A) and standardized testing methods protocols (B) used to determine the effectiveness of sterilization or disinfection, as shown in Table 3 below:
B. atrophaeus
B. pumilis
G. stearothermophilus
Clostridium sporogenes
Bacillus subtilis
Mycobacterium terrae
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Staphylococcus aureus
Salmonella enterica
Trichophyton mentagrophytes
For each standard test protocol, a define number of organisms are placed on a carrier, such as tube, filter paper, or coated on and in a test solid surface. The specific organisms may be a particular infectious species or could be a surrogate species of the same genus that is closely related to the infectious species. In all cases, the species, carrier and growth conditions are defined by the FDA and/or the Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC) protocol. Following treatment with sterilization or disinfection equipment, the carrier with the specific species sample is placed into ideal growing conditions for the particular test species. After a required period in culture, usually 2 to 30 days, the culture is monitored. If no growth is observed, the sterilization or disinfection equipment is declared to be operating within required parameters.
In addition to enabling growth and infectivity, protein components of infectious organisms could trigger severe immunogenic or allergic reactions in susceptible individuals even at very low level. Examples include mold proteins that are able to trigger severe allergic reactions even if the mold has been rendered no longer able to grow. Immunogenic proteins can also occur in food such as gliadin, a highly immunogenic protein component of the seed storage protein gluten in wheat and related grains. Gliadin can trigger reactions in most individuals suffering from Crohn's disease. It is critical that immunogenic proteins are completely removed from any equipment that will be used in conjunction with susceptible individuals.
A wide range of pathogenic organisms use a multicopper oxidase with 3 cupredoxin superfamily domains for growth and survival. As disclosed herein, the loci suf I that contains a critical protein that confers different functions depending on the genus (bacteria or fungus) and this critical protein can be targeted. Depending on the genus, the suf I loci encoded protein can have different names. The functions of the protein encoded by suf I include cell division (FtsP), formation of spore coat proteins (CotA), chromosome partitioning, inorganic ion transport, and metabolism and cell wall, membrane, and envelope formation. As the protein product of the suf I loci are absolutely critical for the survival of the spores (in spore forming bacteria) and/or growth (all bacteria and fungus), if the protein product of the suf I loci is irreversibly fragmented into short polypeptides and amino acids, the bacteria or fungus cannot survive. Additionally, it is likely that a sterilization method that clearly demonstrates fragmentation of the protein product of the sufi I loci would also fragment other proteins in the bacterium or fungus. Bacteria and fungus can be divided into distinct genus each containing multiple species. Many species also have subspecies that carry unique characteristics include multi-drug resistance. In human health situations, certain bacteria and fungus species and subspecies are of major concern because they are capable of causing disease. Related species may be used in medical research, e.g., E. coli K12, or as indicator species for qualification of sterilization, e.g., B. atrophaeus used to qualify gas sterilization. See Table 2 above for a list of common bacteria and fungus genera and species with impact on human medicine.
Prions are a unique category of a transmissible infectious agent that comprised only of protein, without DNA or RNA. Prions can cause a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) or prion diseases including the new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD). See Table 4 below. Infectious prions are in fact an abnormally folded brain protein. This brain protein (Protease resistant Proteins, PrP) can be folded into two different structural (tertiary) forms, the normal brain protein, PrPc, and the abnormal, disease triggering form, PrPsc. The disease triggering form, PrPsc, is found in high quantity in the brain of infected humans and animals and can be transferred to a new host with the transfer of infected material. Once in the new host, the abnormally folded protein (PrPsc) causes disease symptoms by promoting the unfolding of the normal host protein (PrPc) and refolding into the disease causing form (PrPsc). PrP proteins can also be partially cleave and still retain their infectious characteristics. Full length mature PrP protein (both PrPc and PrPsc) is 209 amino acids long. Limited proteolysis of PrPsc will cleave amino acids from the amino terminus resulting in another infectious protein form PrP 27-30 that is approximately 142 amino acids long. Additional cleavage that significantly reduces the 142 amino acid long PrP 27-30 is needed to render the PrP protein irreversibly non-infectious. Although most infectious agents can be permanently rendered non-infectious by heat or steam, these methods are not sufficient to eliminate infectious prions from medical equipment.
As discussed above, prions are abnormally folded protease resistant proteins (PrPsc) that cause disease symptoms by promoting the unfolding of normal proteins (PrPc) and refolding into the disease causing protein form (PrPsc). As the level of the PrPsc rises in the patient's brain, symptoms of progressive dementia, myoclonic seizures, abnormalities of high cortical function, cerebellar and corticospinal disturbances develop. The period between infection and development of disease can extend for years to decades. The duration of disease symptoms is variable but is typically 8 to 18 months.
Once prion proteins fold into the infectious form (PrPsc), they are extremely difficult to render non-infectious. Conventional methods to sterilize medical equipment contaminated with prions, such as high heat to promote loss of function of other protein types by triggering loss of tertiary structure, are ineffective because unlike most proteins, the denatured prion proteins, both infectious and non-infectious, will spontaneously refold by themselves back to their pre-treatment forms. In some cases, conventional methods may actually result in refolded into infectious form promoting the conversion of the non-infection prion protein into the infectious prion protein.
To render infectious proteins such as prions irreversibly non-infectious, all infectious proteins must be fragmented into small polypeptides, amino acids or components. The only currently approved conventional method for this process is harsh treatment of medical equipment and supplies with caustic soda, an extremely harsh process that frequently damages and/or destroys medical equipment.
Determining whether or not an infectious prion (PrPsc) sample has been permanently destroyed can be extremely difficult and time consuming. Conventional methods for determining whether an infectious prion has been permanently destroyed require that after attempted deactivation, the PrPsc sample is injected into a matched susceptible animal that is then followed for an extended time to see if the animal develops disease. In larger animals, the process can take years, but even in a small animal such as a mouse, the test can take months. As there is a potential for inter-animal variation and poor test accuracy, a large animal test pool is required to obtain relatively accurate results.
Immunogens may include a wide range of molecules including proteins that can trigger dramatic immunologic responses in susceptible individuals. The responses can trigger serious allergic reactions on the skin (e.g., poison ivy rash), in the gut (e.g., triggering a flare-up in Crohn's disease), in the lung (e.g., asthma) or a systemic response (e.g., anaphylaxis). Protein immunogens are a special class of immunogens produced by a wide range of bacteria, fungus (e.g. mold) or plants and can be difficult to destroy. An example of a common plant immunogen is gluten. Common grains such as various strains of wheat, farro, rye and spelt are derived from wild and domesticated grains of the Triticum, Aegilops and Secale genera. Common to all these species is the seed storage protein complex called gluten. When seeds are ground into flour, the gluten protein complex gives bread dough its elastic quality and bread its spongy texture. Unfortunately gluten is comprised of several proteins including Gliadin (also called Prolamin) which triggers severe T cell attack on the gut of patients with the autoimmune disease Celiac disease (CD). Gliadins can be typed as α, γ, and ω with a small protease resistant fragment (p57-73) of α-gliadins triggering the most severe destructive T cell response. As a results CD patients must not only avoid products containing gluten, but also need to be extremely careful to avoid small amounts of residual α-gliadin that may contaminate food preparation utensils.
Protease resistant proteins like α-gliadin are resistant to destruction so it is critical that devices and methods used to destroy them and other immunogens (also called allergens) can be easily checked to ensure they are operating at peak efficiency. If not, residual allergens can trigger life threatening responses in sensitive patients. The process of removing immunogens by deimmunization methods or devices is called deimmunization. The ability to test for the destruction of different immunogens on surfaces is not standardized. Usually affected patients are subjected to skin test regiments to determine their individual reactions to different candidate immunogens/allergens. The patient is then advised to avoid all immunogen contact and discard any materials potential contaminated with the specific immunogen or allergen. In cooking and manufacturing situations, extreme care must be taken to avoid potential cross contamination to the point that food packaging labels frequently carry warning labels about the potential issues.
Thus, a method is needed to determine irreversible destruction of proteins critical for the growth of infectious organisms, immunogenic proteins, and/or infectious proteins (e.g., prions) and thus rapidly and accurately determines the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of equipment or supplies by a device. With such a method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, medical personnel and patients can have confidence that the medical equipment used for patient treatment is not contaminated with potentially lethal or immunogenic proteins. Without such a method, medical personnel may believe they are using properly sterilized equipment and then later discover that they have accidentally exposed their patients to lethal infections and harmful immune reactions
In one aspect, a method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of equipment and/or supplies by a device is featured. The method includes providing a defined surrogate protein having a predetermined sequence representative of an infectious agent potentially contaminating the equipment and/or the supplies to be sterilized, deimmunized, and/or disinfected by the device. The defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection. The effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection is rapidly determined by determining if the defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence has been destroyed.
In one embodiment, the defined surrogate protein may include proteins critical for stability, growth and/or infectious capacity of infectious agents. The defined surrogate protein may include a protein critical for stability, growth and/or infectious capacity of surrogate organisms of infectious agents. The infectious agent may include one or more of: an infectious protein, an infectious spore forming bacteria, an infectious vegetative bacteria, an infectious fungus, and an infectious virus. The defined surrogate protein may include pathogenic proteins, proteins critical for the growth of infectious agents, and immunogenic proteins. The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein for SEQ ID NO: 1 may be at least 95% homologous the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence. The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein for SEQ ID NO: 2 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence. The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein for SEQ ID NO: 3 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence.
The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein SEQ ID NO: 4 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence.
The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein SEQ ID NO: 5 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence. The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein SEQ ID NO: 6 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence. The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein SEQ ID NO: 7 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence. The predetermined sequence may be defined by the sequence:
The defined surrogate protein SEQ ID NO: 8 may be at least 95% homologous to the predetermined sequence or substantial fragment of the predetermined sequence. The rapidly determining may include a sensitive protein analysis procedure. The sensitive protein analysis procedure may include one or more of: a Western Blot analysis, a protein assay analysis, a magnetic separation analysis, a peptide analysis, a mass spectrometry analysis, and a gas chromatography analysis. The sensitive protein analysis procedure may include fluorescence analysis of proteins covalently crosslinked on a solid surface. The sensitive protein analysis procedure may include fluorescence analysis of proteins covalently crosslinked on magnetic beads. The defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence may be disposed on a surface, disposed on a test strip, disposed in or on a vessel, on a tube, or in or on a holder. The holder may be disposed to receive a flow of a sterilization agent, a deimmunization agent or a disinfection agent.
Other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of a preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings, in which:
Aside from the preferred embodiment or embodiments disclosed below, this invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Thus, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. If only one embodiment is described herein, the claims hereof are not to be limited to that embodiment. Moreover, the claims hereof are not to be read restrictively unless there is clear and convincing evidence manifesting a certain exclusion, restriction, or disclaimer.
The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of equipment or supplies of one or more embodiments of this invention may be utilized to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, e.g., a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device and provide improvements to the conventional methods discussed above. In one example, the method for rapidly detecting effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of equipment or supplies of one or more embodiments of this invention may be based on a specific measuring the complete destruction of a specific protein critical for an organism's growth and requires only a few hours to return absolute results. The method for rapidly detecting effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of equipment or supplies of one or more embodiments of this invention also contains multiple layers of internal controls that enable a clear determination if either false positive and false negative results have occurred. This allows the avoidance of unnecessary repairs to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection equipment and eliminates false negative tests and more dangerous exposure of patients to improperly sterilized, deimmunized, or disinfected medical equipment or supplies.
The method for rapidly detecting effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of equipment or supplies of one or more embodiments of this invention may be used to rapidly determine if a sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection device is effectively destroying specific infectious or immunogenic agents, defined herein as infectious or pathogenic proteins, infectious spore forming bacteria, infectious vegetative bacteria, infectious fungus, infectious viruses, and immunogenic proteins.
In one embodiment, the method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection of equipment and/or supplies by a device, such as a sterilization device, e.g., by a device that applies cycles of a solvent and electromagnetic radiation, e.g., microwaves, such as disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 15/330,469 by the assignee hereof, hereinafter the '469 Patent Application, any of the sterilization devices discussed in the Background section above, the devices for the methods of sterilization shown in Table 3 above, an autoclave, of similar type sterilization device known to those skilled in the art, a deimmunization device, e.g., a device that applies cycles of a solvent and electromagnetic radiation, e.g., microwaves, such as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application and/or disinfection device, e.g., a device that applies cycles of a solvent and electromagnetic radiation, e.g., microwaves, such as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application, or the devices for the methods of disinfection shown in Table 3 above, includes providing a defined surrogate protein having a predetermined sequence representative of an infectious agent potentially contaminating the equipment and/or supplies to be sterilized, deimmunized and/or disinfected by the device, step 100,
The method preferably directly measures the irreversible destruction of the defined surrogate proteins having the predetermined sequence that are critical for survival and/or growth of such infectious agents.
In one embodiment, the method utilizes one or more prion detection indicator samples configured as a defined surrogate protein. In this example, the defined surrogate protein has the following predetermined sequence:
The defined prion surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence above for prion detection is then subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, by a device, e.g., a sterilization device, a deimmunization device or a disinfection device, e.g., by conventional methods discussed in the Background section above, or by applying cycles of a solvent and electromagnetic radiation, e.g., microwaves, such as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
In this example, to rapidly determine the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of equipment or supplies by the device, a determination is made if the defined surrogate protein has been destroyed using a sensitive protein analysis procedure, such as Western Blot analysis, or similar protein analysis techniques, such as fluorescence analysis of proteins covalently crosslinked to solid surfaces used in protein array analysis which are extremely sensitive processes that measure both the amount of full length intact defined surrogate protein having a predetermined sequence and the amount of the destroyed or degraded defined surrogate protein, protein array analysis, magnetic separation analysis, peptide analysis, mass spectrometry analysis, gas chromatography analysis, or similar type analysis. In one example, the defined surrogate protein includes a protein critical for stability, growth, and/or infectious capacity of an infectious agent. The defined surrogate protein may include a protein critical for stability, growth, and/or infectious capacity of a surrogate organism of the infectious agent.
One embodiment of the method for rapidly detecting effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of this invention includes providing the defined surrogate protein having a predetermined sequence that is based on the development of a synthetic recombinant test protein sequence with high homology to a section of a protein encoded by the suf I loci in the targeted pathogenic genus, e.g., one or more or all of the genus shown in Table 2 above, and the development of a monoclonal or polyclonal antibody that is able to detect the defined surrogate recombinant protein using Western Blot or other similar protein analysis techniques discussed above. In genera that form spores, such as Bacillus and Clostridium, the target protein encoded in the suf I loci or defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence of the tests forms the spore coat protein CotA. In non-spore forming genus such as the bacteria Mycobacterium, Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas, or the fungus Candida, the target protein encoded in the suf I loci or defied surrogate protein of the tests forms the cell division protein (FisP). In other genera of bacteria and fungus, the target protein or encoded defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence in the suf I loci may have additional names but all carry the same protein structure of multicopper oxidase with 3 cupredoxin superfamily domains.
For each method of rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, specific for its unique genus, a predetermined quantity of the defined surrogate having the predetermined protein sequence is placed on a carrier, such as filter paper, or a tube, or on the surface of an object, such as a glass or slide, a microtiter plate, a flexible membrane, magnetic beads, e.g., magnetic beads used for magnetic bead separation or similar type object or surface. For Western analysis, the defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence is not covalently linked to the carrier or surface. In other protein analysis processes such as protein array or magnetic bead separation, the defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence is covalently linked to the carrier or solid surface. After treatment with the sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection equipment of process and Western analysis, this involves recovering the recombinant defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence, both in its intact and fragmented forms, from the carrier, surface tube, or object, treating the sample with denaturing loading buffer and running the sample on an acrylamide gel. A control sample that was not subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection is also included. In one example, the samples are transferred nylon membrane and the intact and fragmented samples are visualized using the specific antibody. If the sterilization, deimmunizing or disinfection equipment is operating correctly, the control sample will have protein indicator bands that are easily visualized but the treated sample will be absent any type protein indicator bands indicating the sterilization, deimmunizing or disinfection equipment was able to irreversibly fragment the recombinant defined surrogate protein. If other protein analysis processes such as protein array or magnetic bead separation are used, the solid surface to which defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence was covalently linked will be tested such that intact defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence can be visualized using the specific antibody and fragment and/or destroyed defined surrogate protein having the predetermined sequence is no longer detected by the process. As the amino acid sequence and structure of the defined surrogate protein having a predetermined sequence is highly homologous to the target protein in the pathogenic members of the genus, irreversible destruction of the defined surrogate protein indicates that the sterilization, deimmunizing or disinfection equipment will have also destroyed the target proteins, resulting in destruction of all members of the genus that may be on the sterilization, deimmunizing or disinfection equipment or supplies.
In accordance with one or more embodiments of the method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, the predetermined sequence of the defined surrogate protein and the corresponding peptide used for development of a polyclonal antibody for Western Blot analysis include one or more of the following predetermined sequences:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptides used for the development of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies for use by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence are:
The peptide used for the development of monoclonal or polyclonal antibody used by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence is:
Western Blot analysis typically utilizes equipment, e.g., acrylamide gel, a power supply to create an electric field to trigger protein migration where smaller fragments move faster than larger fragments to separate intact proteins from fragmented or degraded proteins, a membrane, transfer equipment, and visualization equipment. Western Blot analysis also preferably utilizes specific reagents, e.g., a positive control protein to show the location of a full length defined surrogate protein and specific antibody for the defined surrogate protein, e.g., any of the defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequences and the corresponding antibody above. The specific antibody binds to the associated defined surrogate protein, both full length, and fragments, to provide a visualization if the defined surrogate protein was destroyed by sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection.
Western Blot analysis for infectious organisms may also typically include a defined number of colony forming units (CFU) or spores of the test pathogen which are added to a stable substrate such as filter paper (dried) or other sample holder. The number of CFU or spores will contain a defined quantity of each indication protein to be followed.
Western Blot analysis may also be conducted on defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequences samples placed on indicator strips or other small sample holders that maybe subjected to sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection. After sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection, the defined surrogate proteins from the indicator strips or other small sample holders are extracted from the filter paper or other sample holders into a loading dye and denatured (eliminating any tertiary protein structure). The samples are then run on the gel, including control wells with (1) size marker, (2) positive control protein, (3) other controls if needed. After transfer to membrane, defined surrogate proteins and protein fragments are visualized with unique antibodies preferably having a high affinity and specific binding to an indicator region of the protein being tested. Successful sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection will result in the loss of all indicator proteins of defined length. The development process may require side by side Western Blots and standard growth studies to demonstrate sufficient equivalence.
Western Blot analysis may also require defining the defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequence, positive control proteins, and/or a negative control proteins and may require the development of a polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind to specific defined surrogate proteins discussed above in Western Blot analysis or other protein analysis format, both full-length and fragments, and the positive control protein. The antibody will not bind to the negative control protein. It is also possible that a secondary antibody that is labeled with an enzyme or other visualization marker will be needed to visualize the detection antibody.
Protein array analysis can be used as a substitution for Western blot analysis in circumstances in which less sensitivity can be tolerated, but faster results are needed. In a Western Blot analysis, a substrate such as a piece of filter paper or tube is used to temporarily hold the recombinant protein sample during testing of sterilization equipment. After sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection, the recombinant protein sample is removed from the substrate, denatured, separated on an acrylamide gel and transferred to nylon membrane before visualizing with antibodies. In protein array analysis, the recombinant protein sample, e.g., one or more of the defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequence discussed above, is covalently crosslinked to solid surfaces such as glass, plastics or metal beads. After treatment by sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection, the solid surfaces, with the covalently crosslinked recombinant proteins are directly visualized with antibodies. Unlike Western blot analysis that can visualize the amount of protein fragmentation has occurred, protein array analysis can indicate how much of the protein sample has lost regions that are recognized by visualizing antibodies protein assay analysis but is unable to determine what other areas of the recombinant proteins were not destroyed. Thus, protein array analysis is highly suitable for testing the presence or absence of intact test proteins, such as the defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequence homologous to proteins critical for spore coats or bacteria or fungus survival or growth, e.g., one or more of the defined surrogate proteins having the predetermined sequences for Clostridium, Bacillus, Mycobacterium, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Trichophyton, Candida, and α-Gliadin shown above. Because protein assay analysis cannot determine the absolute level of protein fragmentation that has occurred, protein array analysis may not be sensitive enough for quantifying the complete destruction of infectious proteins like prions although it is not excluded as a test method if less sensitivity is tolerated.
To establish a protein array analysis, defined quantities of the defined surrogate proteins for Clostridium, Bacillus, Mycobacterium, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Trichophyton, Candida, and α-Gliadin above are covalently linked to a solid surface. The solid surface may include a wide support surface, such as a microscope slide made of glass or silicon, a flexible membrane, a magnetizable bead, a microtiter plate, or other similar solid surface to which a selection of the defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequence can be permanently attached. The surface used is determined by the type detector that will be used to determine the quantity of protein left on the support after sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection. After sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection, the solid surface is visualized with antibodies or other specific ligands that will specifically bind to the intact defined surrogate protein but not to destroyed defined surrogate proteins. The antibodies or other ligands can contain fluorescent dyes or other detection enabling attachments. Control slides that were not subjected to sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection are included as a positive control to enable estimations for the relative amount of test protein destroyed by sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection.
One key benefit of using protein array analysis in accordance with one embodiment of the method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of this invention is the covalently linked surrogate proteins on the surface of an object can be used for testing sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection by a sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection device that may use radiation or heat, as well as devices that use flowing disinfectants or gases to sterilize, deimmunize or disinfect medical equipment or supplies. In one example, holder 150,
If magnetizable beads are used as the solid surface, one or more of the defined surrogate proteins having the associated predetermined sequence could also be mixed into liquid sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection steam and later harvested with a strong magnet. Flowing disinfectants or gases would result in the complete loss of the defined surrogate protein having the associated predetermined sequence samples that are not covalently linked to a support surface and the protein array analysis may be used to rapidly determine effective sterilization, deimmunization or disinfection.
Both Western Blot Analysis and protein array analysis are an indirect measurement of sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection. Sterilization is the complete destruction of spore forming infectious organisms so the standard direct measurements are long growth studies to determine the number of organisms that survived the sterilization process. Deimmunization is the complete destruction of immunogenic proteins such that no protein fragments capable of triggering an immune reaction in human or animal remain. Disinfection is the complete destruction of vegetative bacteria, fungus and/or viruses. As disclosed herein, the defined surrogate proteins are considered to be in the form of isolated fragments and destroyed if proteins critical for the survival of the infectious agents are used in quantities 10,000 to 1,000,000 times as much as would occur in a standard sample of intact infectious agents. To correctly establish the scale to determine success ratio between the direct and indirect tests, multiple conditions are preferably utilized to determine the Western Blot analysis and protein array analysis conditions that perfectly align with standard sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection studies using intact infectious organisms and post sterilization growth conditions.
The samples prepared for Western Blot analysis and protein array analysis may use a wide range of circumstances. If the sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection equipment uses flowing gases or liquid to wash over the surfaces to be sterilized holder 150,
The following examples are exemplary and explanatory only and do not limit or restrict this invention.
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device to destroy prions that may be contaminating medical equipment. For the specific test described herein in accordance with one or more embodiments of the method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of this invention, a defined quantity of the defined surrogate prion protein discussed above is provided and then evaluated using Western Blot analysis and an antibody specific for the defined prion surrogate protein.
To protect the human operators of the test, infectious human prions cannot be used. Instead, the defined surrogate protein is used that incorporates all the characteristics of human prion (PrP) proteins, with the critical exception that it cannot infect humans. In this example, to select the defined surrogate PrP protein to be used, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid protein sequence of human PrP protein against a selection of the protein sequence databases of other species including a primate, two companion animals, two food animals and two research animals. From this analysis, the mouse PrP protein was determined to be the best candidate surrogate protein. Structurally, mouse PrP protein is as robust as the human PrP protein and thus will be equivalently resistant to a wide range of destructive methods but is also sufficiently different as to be unable to infect humans. Arrow 168,
To evaluate additional surrogate PrP proteins that could be used, the mouse PrP protein sequence was compared against the protein sequence database. Table 5 below shows the wide diversity of a predetermined list of species PrP proteins that could be used as well as each protein's sequence ID and its homology to Mouse PrP. The human sequence is less than 90% homologous to mouse PrP. The search also demonstrates how conserved the PrP protein is across a wide range of mammalian species contained within the sequence database and any one of these could be used as the surrogate protein in the Protein Indicator Test. The database also contains the sequence for chicken PrP but as it is less than 50% homologous to other mammalian PrP proteins, it is possible that it or other related proteins could be used in the Protein Indicator Test but its divergence could impact its resistance to destruction. This would make it a less suitable surrogate for the test than other proteins, especially any mammalian PrP protein.
hispidus)
tragocamelus)
aterrimus)
aethiops)
sphinx)
gorilla)
canadensis)
cervicapra)
cuniculus)
bubalis)
nelsoni)
hemionus)
Vulpecula)
melanoleuca)
furo)
familiaris)
One purpose of developing the defined prion surrogate protein test is to provide a rapid method for determining effective sterilization equipment. The method preferably has multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing defined prion surrogate proteins having a predetermined sequence, 2) subjecting the prion surrogate protein samples to sterilization, and 3) using Western Blot analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization of defined prion surrogate protein samples. Successful sterilization has occurred when all of the defined prion surrogate protein sample was fragmented and, as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies. If sterilization was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
A defined surrogate protein having a sequence above for the prions, recombinant mouse PrP full-length protein (208 amino acids long) was obtained from Abcam, Cambridge Mass. On a Western gel, the recombinant protein runs at about approximated 28 kDa in size, indicated at 290,
The Western Blot analysis discussed above is well-established and is an extremely sensitive method to determine the presence and/or absence of a specific protein. The first step in Western Blot analysis involves preparing the defined prion surrogate protein samples for separation by size. In accordance with one embodiment of the method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of the defined prion surrogate proteins will be run as single denatured proteins and thus must be denatured through the use of a denaturing loading buffer, boiled for 10 minutes and then run on a denaturing gel. Once loaded on to an appropriate acrylamide gel, the samples are subjected to electric current that results in the protein fragments traveling at different rates depending on size with smaller fragments moving faster than larger ones. In one example, the gel contained 8% acrylamide. To be able to monitor the separation of the defined prion surrogate protein samples, a standard sample with a mix of proteins of defined sizes was also included. For some experiments discussed herein, additional protein samples may be included to provide for controls of the sample handling conditions.
After separation, the defined prion surrogate protein samples are transferred to a special nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody available from Abcam, Cambridge Mass. that specifically binds to the defined surrogate protein of interest. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-PrP antibody was a rabbit monoclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues near the C-terminus of human Prion protein PrP, as indicated by underlined region indicated at 170,
The first tests involved carefully drying defined quantities of recombinant mouse PrP protein onto filter papers to assist in storage, transport to and from location of sterilization equipment and handling during sterilization tests. To create, test strips of filter paper were cut 4 mm wide by 20 mm long and the bottoms were squared. Serial dilutions (1:3) of mouse PrP protein were created to contain protein solutions 0.1 μg/μl to 0.0037 μg/μl. The protein preps were added dropwise to the filter paper strips until 10 ul were added. The filter paper strips were then air dried. Filter paper strips were prepared in duplicate with 1 μg, 0.333 μg, 0.111 μg, or 0.033 μg applied respectively to a pair of strips. When dry, the strips were placed in Eppendorf tubes and 50 ul 1× Loading Buffer where BME was added. The strips and loading buffer were incubated at 95° C. for 5 minutes then given a quick spin in a micro centrifuge. For one of each paired sample, the filter paper strip was taken out of the Eppendorf tube and inserted into the well of the SDS-PAGE gel. For these samples, electroporation was used to extract any residual defined prion surrogate protein that was retained on the filter paper after extraction by boiling and centrifugation. Half of the loading buffer from these tubes was also loaded into the same well. For the other samples of the pair only boiling and centrifugation was used to extract the defined prion surrogate protein from the filter strips. From these, half of the loading buffer was added to the wells without also adding the filter paper. A control sample of 0.5 μg protein (equivalent to half of the 1 μg concentration samples) was also loaded on the gel for comparison. The gel was run and the Western Blot Analysis performed using the procedure described above.
The results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the protein concentrations that were dried onto the filter paper and the control sample. There was also no significant difference between the extraction process using only boiling and centrifugation and the more difficult process of using boiling, centrifugation and electroporation for extraction. In addition, the Western Blot analysis demonstrated that the Western Blot analysis was sensitive to below 0.05 μg. Hence, a 1 μg of recombinant mouse PrP protein should be used for all sterilization tests. The samples should be extracted from filter paper using boiling in loading the buffer with BME and centrifugation and half of the sterilized samples used for Western Bolt analysis.
Experiments were conducted to demonstrate a combination of one or more of heat, a vaporizing solvent, and electromagnetic radiation, e.g., microwaves, e.g., as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application, could irreversibly destroy the defined prion surrogate protein shown with the sequence shown above. The stable PrP protein was selected for the experiments as it cannot be irreversibly destroyed using a standard sterilization autoclave device. For the experiments, samples were created that each contained 1 μg of a structurally robust mouse PrP protein and wrapped in 100% cotton paper to avoid extraneous contamination. This containment was placed in a second layer of 100% cotton paper to increase stability during treatment. The samples were treated with different temperatures and for differing numbers of moisture saturation and microwave cycles, e.g., as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application. After treatment, the samples were prepared in loading buffer and boiled. Half of each sample was then run on a denaturing protein gel. After Western Blot analysis, it was possible to see that certain combinations of temperature and treatment cycles completely destroyed the stable protein samples, shown by the absence of protein bands of gel indicated at 294, 296,
Additional experiments were conducted to demonstrate that with the combination of one or more of heat, saturating moisture and microwaves as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application could destroy the defined surrogate stable PrP proteins if the samples were contained within a vessel such as a polypropylene tube. In this example, samples of the defined prion surrogate proteins were created that each contained about 1 μg of a structurally robust mouse protein. However, instead of drying the protein samples onto filter paper, the 1 μg samples were dried within polypropylene tubes of different lengths including 0.75 cm and 3.5 cm in length. The tubes were closed at one end (on to which the samples were dried) and open at the other. The tubes were contained within 2 layers of 100% cotton paper to prevent cross contamination during treatment. The samples were subjected to sterilization by a combination of one or more of heat, a solvent, e.g., reverse osmois (RO) filtered water, and electromagnetic radiation with differing numbers of moisture saturation and radiation cycles, e.g., as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application. After treatment, the samples were prepared in loading buffer and boiled. Half of each sample was then run on a denaturing protein gel. After Western blot analysis, it was possible to see that certain combinations of temperature and treatment cycles completely destroyed the stable protein samples (as demonstrated by the absence of protein bands of gel). Other treatment conditions did not destroy the stable proteins. The results of the sterilization treatment of PrP samples dried onto filter paper and dried within a polypropylene tube were identical indicating that the method of containing the PrP sample did not alter the results.
All mice were kept in an AAALAC-accredited facility and handled in compliance with guidelines provided by the US Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
Creating Prion Infected Brain Homogenate: Brains from terminally ill C57BL/6 mice infected with 22 L prions were prepared as follows: each brain was homogenized (10%, w/v) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) by repeatedly passing the material first through an 18-gauge needle and then repeatedly through a 26 gauge needle. The brain homogenates were combined to make a stock preparation, diluted with PBS (1/10), aliquoted into 100 ul preps in 2 ml polypropylene freezing vials and frozen at −80° C. until use.
Division into treated and non-treated preps: frozen prion preps having the defined prion surrogate protein were allowed to thaw and the caps removed. In duplicate, samples were sterilized by a combination of one or more of heat, microwaves and saturating moisture, e.g., as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application. The used conditions were similar to the process disclosed in Example 4 above. In one example, the sterilization preferably includes: (A) 140° C., 100 cycles of microwave; (B) 100° C., 100 cycles of microwave; and (C) room temperature, 100 cycles with no microwaves. The Prion Protein Indicator Test having the defined surrogate protein samples were analyzed by Western Blot analysis as described in Example 4 above. Depending on treatment conditions, the test sample was completely destroyed (A), partially destroyed (B), or completely intact (C).
Testing infectiveness of Prion Prep: C57BL/6 mice aged 4-5 weeks were divided into 4 cohorts, 10 mice per cohort, to receive the samples that correlated with the following Prion Protein Indicator Test samples having the defined prion surrogate protein: (A) complete destruction; (B) partial destruction; (C) no treatment and (D) PBS control. After anesthesia each mouse was intracerebrally inoculated with a 20 ul-aliquot of the designated inoculum. The mice were observed up to one year after inoculation, unless they displayed terminal symptoms of PrP infection including persistent signs of ataxia, kyphosis, somnolence, and hind leg weakness. Terminally-ill mice were euthanized and their brains divided sagittally along the midline and place formalin fixation for histological analysis or flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen for protein analysis. At one year, all remaining mice (showed no obvious signs of neurologic disease) were euthanized and their brains also divided for histological analysis or protein analysis.
Results: Over the observation period, none of the mice that received either the PBS control (D) or the brain homogenate treated with the conditions that demonstrated complete destruction on the Prion Protein Indicator Test having the defined prion surrogate protein (A) demonstrated any symptoms of disease. After euthanization, none of the brains demonstrated any signs of prion disease. Western Blot analysis of the brains showed no increase in concentrations of PrP proteins over normal levels. The mice that received the brain homogenate and also received no sterilization treatment (C) or partial destruction (B) as indicated by the Prion Protein Indicator Test all demonstrated terminal symptoms of PrP infection before the completion of the 1 year observation period. Their brains demonstrated obvious signs of prion disease and by Western analysis, the concentration of PrP proteins were greatly increased over normal levels. Together the results of the mouse study indicated a clear correlation between the results from the Prion Protein Indicator Test results and the mouse model results.
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device to destroy bacteria of any Clostridium species that may be contaminating medical equipment or supplies. In this example, a defined quantity of the defined surrogate protein having the predetermined SEQ ID NO: 1 discussed above was subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis, and the antibody for the defined Clostridium surrogate protein shown above. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the defined surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Clostridium proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Clostridium genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined surrogate, Clostridium protein having the predetermined sequence, SEQ ID NO: 1, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Clostridium genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf I loci proteins, multiple Clostridium species, used for the comparative are shown in Table 5 below:
Clostridium sporogenes
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium novyi
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Clostridium genus, the protein product of the suf I loci is called cotA and is critical for many live stages including strongly contributing to the stability of the spore coat.
To design the defined Clostridium surrogate protein having SEQ ID NO: 1, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 5 were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Clostridium species as shown in
One purpose of developing the synthetic defined Clostridium surrogate protein is to provide a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, such as sterilization device, deimmunization device, or disinfection device. In this example, the method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection includes multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing the synthetic defined Clostridium surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the defined Clostridium surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar type analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of defined Clostridium surrogate protein test samples. Successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection has occurred when all the defined Clostridium surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Clostridium surrogate protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be seen on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the Clostridium sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection test. First, to create the sample for the test using the defined Clostridium surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid SEQ ID NO: 1 for Clostridium above was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length defined Clostridium surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the defined Clostridium surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of the samples were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, the treated Clostridium samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the defined Clostridium surrogate protein of interest. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf I loci encoded protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 1 residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot Analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labclled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the defined Clostridium surrogate proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, e.g., indicated at 210,
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device or disinfection device to destroy bacteria of any Bacillus species that may be contaminating medical equipment or supplies. In this example, a defined quantity of the defined Bacillus surrogate protein having the predetermined SEQ ID NO: 2 discussed above is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis, and the antibody for the defined Bacillus surrogate protein shown above. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the defined surrogate Bacillus surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Bacillus proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Bacillus genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined surrogate Bacillus protein having SEQ ID NO: 2, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Bacillus genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf I loci encoded proteins, multiple Bacillus species, used for the comparative are shown in Table 6 below.
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus atrophaeus
Bacillus pumilus
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Bacillus genus, the protein product of the suf I loci is called cotA and is critical for many live stages including strongly contributing to the stability of the spore coat.
To design the synthetic defined Bacillus surrogate protein for SEQ ID NO: 2, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 6 were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Bacillus species as shown in
One purpose of developing the synthetic defined Bacillus surrogate protein is to provide a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, such as a sterilization device, deimmunization device, or disinfection device. The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection preferably includes multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing synthetic defined Bacillus surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the Bacillus surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of defined Bacillus surrogate protein test samples. Successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection has occurred when all the defined Bacillus surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Bacillus surrogate protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the Bacillus sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection test. First, to create the sample for the test using the synthetic defined Bacillus surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid for SEQ ID NO: 2 above was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of the defined Bacillus surrogate protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length defined Bacillus surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the synthetic defined Bacillus surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection the samples were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy, e.g., as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization deimmunization and/or disinfection, the treated Bacillus samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the defined Bacillus surrogate proteins. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf I loci protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 2 residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot Analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labelled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the defined Bacillus surrogate proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, e.g., indicated at 220,
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device to destroy bacteria of any Mycobacterium species that may be contaminating medical equipment or supplies. In this example, a defined quantity of the defined surrogate protein having a SEQ ID NO: 3 discussed above is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis and using an antibody specific for the protein. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Mycobacterium proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Mycobacterium genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein SEQ ID NO: 3 above, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Mycobacterium genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf 1 loci proteins, multiple Mycobacterium species, used for the comparative are shown in Table 7 below:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium africanum
Mycobacterium kansasii
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Mycobacterium genus, the protein product of the suf I loci is called cumA and is critical for many live stages including cell survival and growth.
To design the synthetic defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein having SEQ ID NO: 3, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 7 were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Mycobacterium species as shown in
One purpose of developing the defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein is to provide a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, such as a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device. The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection preferably includes multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing the defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of synthetic defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein test samples. Successful sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection has occurred when all the synthetic defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Mycobacterium protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the Mycobacterium sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection test. First, to create the sample for the test using the defined Mycobacterium surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid SEQ ID NO: 3 above was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length synthetic Mycobacterium surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the Mycobacterium surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection the samples were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection the treated Mycobacterium surrogate protein samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the protein of interest. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf I loci protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 3 for Mycobacterium above residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot Analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labelled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the Mycobacterium surrogate proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection has occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, e.g., indicated at 236,
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device to destroy bacteria of any Staphylococcus species that may be contaminating medical equipment or supplies. In this example, a defined quantity of the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein having the predetermined SEQ ID NO: 4 discussed above is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis and the antibody specific for the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the synthetic defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Staphylococcus proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Staphylococcus genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein having SEQ ID NO: 4, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Staphylococcus genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf I loci proteins, multiple Staphylococcus species, used for the comparative are shown in Table 8 below:
Staphylucoccus
aureus
Staphylucoccus
epidermidis
Staphylucoccus
saprophyticus
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Staphylococcus genus, the protein product of the suf I loci is called cueO and is critical for many live stages including strongly contributing to cell survival and growth To design the synthetic defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 8 were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Staphylococcus species as shown in
One purpose of developing the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein is to provide a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection device, such as sterilization device, deimmunization device, or disinfection device and/or supplies. The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection includes multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing synthetic defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein test samples of the defined surrogate protein. Successful sterilization has occurred when all the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the Staphylococcus sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection test. First to create the sample for the test using the synthetic defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid SEQ ID NO: 4 above was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of the defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the synthetic defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection the samples were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, the treated defined Staphylococcus surrogate protein samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the Staphylococcus surrogate protein of interest. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf I loci protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 4 residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labelled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the defined Staphylococcus surrogate proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, indicated at 250,
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device or disinfection device to destroy bacteria of any Pseudomonas species that may be contaminating medical equipment or supplies. In this example, a defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein quantity of the defined surrogate protein having a predetermined SEQ ID NO: 5 discussed above is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis, and using an antibody specific for the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein shown above. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Pseudomonas proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Pseudomonas genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein having SEQ ID NO: 5, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Pseudomonas genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf I loci Table 9 below:
Pseudomonas. Sequences used to determine regions of high homology
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pseudomonas fluorescens
Pseudomonas putida
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Pseudomonas genus, the protein product of the suf 1 loci is called cumA and is critical for many live stages including strongly contributing to the cell survival and growth
To design the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 9 were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Pseudomonas species as shown in
One purpose of developing the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein test is to create a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, such as a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device. The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection preferably includes multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing synthetic defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the synthetic Pseudomonas surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of synthetic defined Pseudomonas surrogate test samples. Successful sterilization has occurred when all the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the defined Pseudomonas sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection test. First, to create the sample for the test using the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid SEQ ID NO: 5 defined above was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length synthetic defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the synthetic defined surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection of the samples were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, the treated defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the defined Pseudomonas surrogate protein. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf 1 loci protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 5 residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot Analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labelled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the synthetic defined Pseudomonas surrogate proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, e.g., indicated at 266,
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, and/or a disinfection device to destroy bacteria of any Trichophyton species that may be contaminating medical equipment. In this example, a defined quantity of the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein having a predetermined SEQ ID NO: 6 discussed above is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis and using the antibody specific for the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Trichophyton proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Trichophyton genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein having the SEQ ID NO: 6, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Trichophyton genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf I loci proteins, multiple Trichophyton species, used for the comparative are shown in Table 10 below:
Trichophyton. Sequences used to determine regions of high homology
Trichophyton rubrum
Trichophyton tonsurane
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Trichophyton genus, the protein product of the suf I loci is called laccase and is critical for many live stages including strongly contributing to cell survival and growth
To design the synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 10 above were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Trichophyton species as shown in
One purpose of developing the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein is to provide a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, such as sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device. The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection preferably includes multiple steps including at least: 1) preparing synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of defined Trichophyton surrogate protein test samples. Successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection has occurred when all the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the Trichophyton sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection test. First, to create the sample for the test using the synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid SEQ ID NO: 7 above was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of defined Trichophyton surrogate protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the synthetic defined Trichophyton surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, the defined Trichophyton surrogate protein samples were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection, e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, the treated Trichophyton samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the protein of interest. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf I loci protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 6 residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labelled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection has occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, e.g., indicated at 276,
It is important to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or disinfection device, to destroy bacteria of any Candida species that may be contaminating medical equipment. In this example, a defined quantity of the defined Candida surrogate protein having a predetermined SEQ ID NO: 7 discussed above is subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection to rapidly determine the effectiveness of the sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection using Western Blot analysis, protein array analysis, or similar type analysis and the antibody specific for the defined Candida surrogate protein. In this example, to protect the human operators of the test, the defined Candida surrogate protein needs to incorporate critical characteristics of Candida proteins that are critical for the survival and growth of members of the Candida genus while avoiding organisms that can infect humans.
To design the synthetic defined Candida surrogate protein having the SEQ ID NO: 7, a protein analysis was conducted comparing the amino acid sequences of the suf I loci gene from multiple species of the Candida genus shown in Table 2 above. In this example, the Sequence IDs (found in Pubmed, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/) for the suf I loci proteins, multiple Candida species, used for the comparative are shown in Table 11 below:
Candida
albicans
Candida dubliniensis
Candida
tropicalis
Candida
auris
The protein produced by the suf I loci is fundamental to survival and growth of a wide range of spores, bacteria and fungus. In species of the Candida genus, the protein product of the suf I loci is called laccase and is critical for many live stages including strongly contributing to cell survival and growth
To design the synthetic defined Candida surrogate protein, the specific amino acids from the proteins listed in Table 1 were aligned to determine amino acid sequence regions that are highly homologous in all evaluated Candida species as shown in
One purpose of developing the defined Candida surrogate protein test is to provide a method for rapidly determining the effectiveness of sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection by a device, such as a sterilization device, a deimmunization device, or a disinfection device. The method for rapidly determining effective sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection includes multiple steps preferably including at least: 1) preparing synthetic defined Candida surrogate protein test samples, 2) subjecting the defined Candida surrogate protein test samples to sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, and 3) using Western Blot or similar analysis to visualize the effects of sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection of defined Candida surrogate protein test samples. Successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection has occurred when all the defined Candida surrogate protein test samples are fragmented and as a result of the protein fragmentation, none remains to bind to the visualization antibodies indicating the defined Candida surrogate protein was destroyed. If sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection was not successful, protein bands will be see on the Western Blot analysis.
Following the process more fully described for the Prion test, a similar process was followed to create the defined Candida surrogate protein sterilization, deimmunization and/or disinfection test. First, to create the sample for the synthetic defined Candida surrogate protein test using the defined Candida surrogate protein, DNA encoding the amino acid SEQ ID NO: 7 was synthesized and cloned into standard vectors both for E. coli and yeast expression. Using standard techniques, large quantities of protein were produced in E. coli or yeast and isolated by standard recombinant methods. Using a nickel column, a full-length synthetic defined Candida surrogate protein (171 amino acids long) was isolated. To create the samples having the synthetic defined Candida surrogate protein to qualify sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, the samples having the defined Candida surrogate protein were dried onto small filter papers, dried inside small tubes or a surface of an object subjected to sterilization, deimmunization, and/or disinfection, e.g., using cycles of applying a solvent and microwave energy as discussed in the '469 Patent Application.
After sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection, the treated defined Candida surrogate protein samples were transferred to tubes, denatured and separated by size and transferred to nylon membrane before being permanently cross-linked to the membrane. The final steps include incubating the nylon membrane with a primary antibody that specifically binds to the defined Candida surrogate protein. In the experiments discussed herein, the primary anti-suf I loci protein antibody was a rabbit polyclonal antibody that was raised against a synthetic peptide discussed above for SEQ ID NO: 7 residues. For added sensitivity, addition antibodies, both monoclonal and polyclonal, were raised against the other synthetic peptide(s). For the Western Blot analysis, a secondary antibody may be a HRP-labelled goat anti-rabbit to enable visualization of the protein fragments, both intact and fragmented. If the proteins have completely fragmented no bands will be visualize on the Western blot. Very small fragments and amino acids will be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful sterilization, deimmunization, or disinfection has occurred, the visualized Western blot has a dark ban in the untreated control sample, indicated at 286,
Many processes and solid substrates are well known in the art for immobilizing proteins onto a solid surface. In this example, glass slides were obtained having round wells created by printing the glass with highly water-repellent mark, e.g., as shown by multi-well glass slides 130, 134,
In this example, the defined Clostridium surrogate protein having SEQ ID NO: 1 was diluted in TG buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 10% (v/v) glycerol) to 200 μg/ml. Different quantities of the defined Clostridium surrogate protein, e.g., 200 ng, 100 ng, 50 ng, 25 ng, 12.5 ng, 6.25 ng, 3.125 ng, 1.562 ng, 0.781 ng and 0 ng, were spotted in individual wells, e.g., the wells exemplarily indicated at 132 and 136,
To develop a test to qualify the ability of a sterilization device, deimmunization, or disinfection to destroy medically important immunogenic proteins, such as α-gliadin, that may be contaminating medical equipment, the following experiments were conducted. In this example, to rapidly detect effective deimmunization, a defined quality of an isolated protein needs to be deimmunized with a deimmunization device, e.g., using cycles of a combination of a solvent and electromagnetic microwaves radiation, e.g., microwaves, as disclosed in the '469 patent application and then evaluated by Western Blot analysis using an antibody specific for the protein. To design a candidate protein to serve as the representative defined surrogate α-gliadin protein having a predetermined sequence, the translated sequences of representative α-gliadin genes from many commonly consumed human grains were aligned. See Table 13 and Table 14 below. Gliadin protein is the immunogenic component of gluten and must be avoided by Celiac patients.
Triticum aestivum
Triticum sphaerococcum
Durum wheat/Pasta
Triticum turgidum subsp.
durum
Triticum dicoccon
Macha Wheat
Triticum macha
Secale cereale
Triticum spelta
Triticum urartu
Triticum aestivum
Triticum
Triticum
Durum wheat, pasta
aestivum
turgidum
durum
Triticum
dicoccon
Triticum
urartu
Triticum
Macha wheat
macha
Secale
cereale
Aegilops
tauschii
Triticum
sphaerococcum
Triticum spelta
Aegilops
sharonensis
Aegilops
searsii
Aegilops
speltoides
Aegilops
speltoides
Aegilops
uniaristata
Thinopyrum
bessarabicum
In this example, the defined α-Gliadin surrogate protein has the following predetermined sequence:
The peptide used for the development of monoclonal or polyclonal antibody used by Western Blot analysis for the above sequence is:
A fragment of this peptide (KLQPFPQPELPYPQPQ (SEQ ID NO: 25)) in form is the medically important immunogen is CD.
If the defined α-Gliadin surrogate proteins have completely fragmented, no bands will be visualized on the Western Blot. Very small fragments in amino acid would be too small to be retained on the gel. When successful deimmunization, in this example, has occurred, the visualized Western Blot has a dark band in the untreated control sample, e.g., indicated at 420,
Confirmatory tests were conducted by including samples of intact wheat flour using a combination of cycles of a solvent and microwaves, e.g., as disclosed in the '469 Patent Application. After treatment, the intact wheat flour samples were processed following industry standard protocols to test for the presence of gluten in food stuffs.
Although specific features of the invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the invention. The words “including”, “comprising”, “having”, and “with” as used herein are to be interpreted broadly and comprehensively and are not limited to any physical interconnection. Moreover, any embodiments disclosed in the subject application are not to be taken as the only possible embodiments. Other embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the following claims.
In addition, any amendment presented during the prosecution of the patent application for this patent is not a disclaimer of any claim element presented in the application as filed: those skilled in the art cannot reasonably be expected to draft a claim that would literally encompass all possible equivalents, many equivalents will be unforeseeable at the time of the amendment and are beyond a fair interpretation of what is to be surrendered (if anything), the rationale underlying the amendment may bear no more than a tangential relation to many equivalents, and/or there are many other reasons the applicant cannot be expected to describe certain insubstantial substitutes for any claim element amended.
This application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/275,721 filed Feb. 14, 2019, and claims the benefit of and priority thereto under 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 363, 365, and 37 C.F.R. § 1.55 and § 1.78, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/275,721 is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/472,499 filed Mar. 29, 2017, which claims the benefit of and priority thereto under 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 363, 365, and 37 C.F.R. § 1.55 and § 1.78, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/472,499 claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/314,617 filed Mar. 29, 2016, under 35 U.S.C. §§ 119, 120, 363, 365, and 37 C.F.R. § 1.55 and § 1.78, and all are incorporated herein by this reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62314617 | Mar 2016 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16275721 | Feb 2019 | US |
| Child | 16583515 | US | |
| Parent | 15472499 | Mar 2017 | US |
| Child | 16275721 | US |
