The Karnataka based Life Sciences Foundation India has conferred its prestigious National Excellence Award 2014-15 on Dr. Hari Mohan Saxena, Professor of Immunology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary & Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana. The award was presented to him by Padmashree Dr. Nityanand, former Director of Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow at the National Conference on Nanosciences, Nanotoxicology and Nanoinformatics held at the Integral University, Lucknow recently. Dr. Saxena was bestowed with this honor for his innovation in diagnosis of infectious diseases patented by him in USA, China and South Africa.The innovation was earlier selected among Top 100 Innovations in the India Innovation Growth Programby FICCI, Indo-US S&T Forum, DST & Stanford University, USA.
Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of public health significance caused by Brucella organisms. About 500,000 cases of human Brucellosis are estimated to occur worldwide every year. The disease causes huge economic losses to the livestock sector due to reproductive losses in animals, abortions, placentitis, epididymitis and orchitis. In India, the occurrence of Brucellosis is to the extent of 10% in the marginal herds and 50% in organized farms and the socio-economic impact of the disease was estimated to run over Rs. 500 crores annually. The agglutination based Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) is often used as a rapid screening test in the diagnosis of brucellosis. However, the RBPT could sometimes give false negative and false positive results. The specificity and positive predictive value of the test are low and diagnosis requires confirmation by a more specific test.
The reaction of a particulate antigen with antibody leads to clumping of the antigen particles which is called agglutination. Agglutination test is used in the diagnosis of infectious diseases by demonstrating in blood, plasma or serum the presence of antibodies against antigens of infectious microorganisms. The agglutination test is useful when a quick screening result is required in remote areas in the developing countries that lack the facilities for advanced tests. It is a simple and cheap method for diagnosis of infectious diseases. Agglutination tests have been applied to the detection of over 100 infectious diseases. However, false results are not uncommon with slide / plate agglutination based diagnostic assays and kits used worldwide for infectious diseases.
The novel Superagglutination Test developed by Dr. Saxena and his team addresses the two major problems of false negative and false positive results obtained with the conventional slide/plate agglutination tests and kits based on them. The innovative concepts behind the Superagglutination test are applicable not only to brucellosis but to other infectious diseases of animals and humans like Salmonellosis, AIDS etc.
