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  • Article
    Investigation of Tetanus Seropositivity Levels in Adult Patients with Rabies Risk Exposure Admitted To a Hospital in Ankara
    (J Infection Developing Countries, 2025) Gurkaynak, Pinar; Demircan, Serife A.; Tulek, Necla; Kinikli, Sami; Erdinc, Fatma S.; Tuncer, Gunay
    Introduction: This study aimed to assess tetanus seropositivity levels among adult patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital following rabies risk exposure, and to explore potential factors influencing their immunological status. Methodology: This cross-sectional descriptive epidemiological study included 182 adult individuals (68 females and 114 males) who presented to the hospital following rabies risk exposure. The demographic data was collected during a face-to-face interview, and the tetanus antibody concentrations were assessed using a micro-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Serum antibody levels of >= 0.1 IU/mL were defined as "seropositive", while values below this threshold were considered "seronegative". Results: Seropositivity was identified in 81.9% of the patients. There was a significant decline in antibody levels with age (p < 0.001). The Spearman correlation analysis showed a moderately significant negative correlation between age and antibody titers (r = - 0.404, p < 0.001). In addition, there were significantly higher tetanus antibody levels in patients from urban areas, those vaccinated during pregnancy, and those vaccinated within the past 10 years (p = 0.025, 0.036, and 0.013, respectively). Conclusions: Overall, the results highlight a reduction in tetanus antibody levels with age, emphasizing the importance of receiving a booster dose every 10 years. In addition, rabies risk exposure, particularly in older adults, presents a valuable opportunity to administer tetanus vaccination.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 5
    Citation - Scopus: 5
    Performance Comparison of Aptamer- and Antibody-Based Biosensors for Bacteria Detection on Glass Surfaces
    (Taylor & Francis inc, 2024) Balci, Oguz; Kurekci, Asli; Ozalp, V. Cengiz; Cetin, Barbaros
    Antibodies are the most common ligands in commercial and research assay systems for detecting whole pathogen cells. On the other hand, aptamers are superior ligands with many advantages over antibodies in sensitive and robust assay development. Extensive comparisons between aptamer-based biosensors and immunosensors are limited to protein analytes. Here, we report a comparison of ligands (four antibodies and one aptamer for each bacteria) to be used as a biosensor for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus on glass surfaces through systematic experiments. We have demonstrated that anti-E. coli antibody and mouse monoclonal to S. aureus have the best performance among the compared ligands. Hence, the ligands with the best performance were further investigated within the scope of linear range, analytical sensitivity, and reproducibility of the results. We have demonstrated that anti-E. coli antibody with a capture efficiency of 89.1% and mouse monoclonal to S. aureus with a capture efficiency of 88.2% have the best performance among the compared ligands. The results suggest that antibody ligands function with higher efficiency than aptamer ligands but aptamers have strong potential as an analytical tool.