Objective: This study aimed to validate the use of Ca-apt-1, an RNA aptamer, that we generated previously as a probe for immunostaining of Candida albicans in rat tongue paraffin-fixed tissue sections MATERIAL AND METHODS: The performance of Ca-apt-1 as a detector molecule was compared with that of anti-C. albicans polyclonal antibody (PcAb), which was used as a positive control. Immunostaining images were visualized by light microscopy and were analyzed by using ImageJ software.
Results: Microscopic results demonstrated that Ca-apt-1 specifically recognized and immunostained C. albicans cells of rat tongue candidiasis, with a specificity comparable to that of PcAb. ImageJ analysis showed that the area (pixels) detected by Ca-apt-1 was wider than that detected by the antibody. This indicates that the binding affinity of Ca-apt-1 toward C. albicans was better than that of PcAb on paraffin-embedded tissues.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that Ca-apt-1 can be used as a probe for immunostaining of fixed tissue sections for oral candidiasis diagnosis.
The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).