The Use of Monoclonal Antibodies of IgG and IgM Classes to Monitor β-D-Glucan Production from Basidiomycete Mushroom Strains in Agro-Industrial Wastes

A huge amount of wastes is produced annually by food processing industries which must be val-orized into high value products. Therefore, the aim of this work involves the use of such wastes for production of -glucans from medicinal basidiomycete strains which are powerful biological re-sponse modifiers in several clinical disorders. The production of -glucans from basidiomycete strains in submerged fermentation was monitored by using monoclonal antibodies of IgG and IgM class as well as by Congo red assay in the presence of several agro-industrial wastes. Subse-quently, these -glucans were purified by using gel filtration and ion-exchange chromatography. FTIR analysis of several -glucans was carried out to investigate their structural properties. The adsorption of -glucans on microtiter plates was dependent on the temperature as well as on the time period of immobilization for ELISA assays. This Mab reacted differently to some heat-treated ?-glucans compared with the native forms suggesting that it binds to a conformational epitope on ?-glucan molecule. These Mabs can be used in a competitive ELISA assay for detection and quantification of ?-glucans from basidiomycete mushrooms.