scholarly journals Development of a Specific and Sensitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay as anIn VitroDiagnostic Tool for Detection ofBartonella henselaeAntibodies in Human Serum

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Jost ◽  
Andreas Latz ◽  
Wibke Ballhorn ◽  
Volkhard A. J. Kempf

ABSTRACTBartonella henselaecauses cat scratch disease and several other clinical entities. Infections withB. henselaeare frequently occurring; however, the infection is only rarely diagnosed, mainly due to a lack of knowledge in the medical community. Microscopic immunofluorescence assays (IFA) are widely used for the serodiagnosis ofB. henselaeinfections but are laborious and time-consuming, and interpretation is subjective. An easy and reliable method for the serological diagnosis ofB. henselaeinfections is needed to overcome the shortcomings of the current IFA. Here, we report the development of an ELISA detecting human anti-B. henselaeantibodies from serum samples. By separating the water-insoluble fraction ofB. henselaeHouston-1 via ion-exchange chromatography, 16 subfractions were generated and tested for immunoreactivity via line blotting. One particular fraction (fraction 24) was selected and spotted on ELISA plates using an industrial production platform. By use of well-characterized human sera from the strictly quality-controlled serum library of the German National Consiliary Laboratory forBartonellainfections, the sensitivity of this ELISA was 100% for PCR-proven infections and 76% for clinically suspected infections at a specificity of 93%. This ELISA is therefore a reliable high-throughput method allowing the serodiagnosis ofB. henselaeinfections.

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 468-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nouha Chahed Bel-Ochi ◽  
Aïda Bouratbine ◽  
Mohamed Mousli

ABSTRACTSerologic detection ofToxoplasma gondiiIgG antibodies is widely accepted as a means to determine immune status and susceptibility toToxoplasmainfection during pregnancy. However, current commercial kits present some drawbacks, such as a requirement for whole-parasite antigen preparation or interassay variability. To address these problems, the purpose of this study was to produce a whole sequence of the recombinantT. gondiiSAG1 antigen (rSAG1) to assess its diagnostic performance inToxoplasmaIgG screening and to explore a saliva-based method as a noninvasive alternative to serum-based testing. rSAG1 was expressed in recombinant bacteria as inclusion bodies, purified through one-step affinity chromatography, and refolded in native form by dialysis. A large amount was obtained, and the specific antigen immunoreactivity was confirmed by immunoblotting. Two rSAG1-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) applied to paired serum and saliva samples were designed. The rSAG1-based ELISA evaluation consisted of testing intrinsic sensitivity and specificity of 49 serum samples from patients immune to toxoplasmosis and 42 serum samples from nonimmune controls identified by routinely used kits. To assess agreement between serum-based and saliva-based tests, the positive percent agreement (PPA) and negative percent agreement (NPA) between the 2 tests were estimated. The rSAG1 serum-based ELISA detected specific IgG with 100% sensitivity and specificity. The PPA and NPA between the serum-based and saliva-based tests varied according to the selected optical density threshold in saliva. Thus, for a selected cutoff of 0.14, the PPA was 100% and the NPA was 88.1%, whereas for a selected cutoff of 0.29, the PPA was 67.3% and the NPA was 100%.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Eby ◽  
Mary C. Gray ◽  
Jason M. Warfel ◽  
Tod J. Merkel ◽  
Erik L. Hewlett

ABSTRACT Adenylate cyclase toxin (ACT) is an essential virulence factor of Bordetella pertussis, and antibodies to ACT protect against B. pertussis infection in mice. The toxin is therefore a strong candidate antigen for addition to future acellular pertussis vaccines. In order to characterize the functionality of the immunologic response to ACT after infection, we developed an assay for testing the ability of serum samples from subjects infected with B. pertussis to neutralize ACT-induced cytotoxicity in J774 macrophage cells. Baboons develop neutralizing anti-ACT antibodies following infection with B. pertussis, and all sera from baboons with positive anti-ACT IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results neutralized ACT cytotoxicity. The toxin neutralization assay (TNA) was positive in some baboon sera in which ELISA remained negative. Of serum samples obtained from humans diagnosed with pertussis by PCR, anti-ACT IgG ELISA was positive in 72%, and TNA was positive in 83%. All samples positive for anti-ACT IgG ELISA were positive by TNA, and none of the samples from humans without pertussis neutralized toxin activity. These findings indicate that antibodies to ACT generated following infection with B. pertussis consistently neutralize toxin-induced cytotoxicity and that TNA can be used to improve understanding of the immunologic response to ACT after infection or vaccination.


2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cysha E. Hall ◽  
Lisa M. Hagan ◽  
Elke Bergmann-Leitner ◽  
Donna M. Tosh ◽  
Jason W. Bennett ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTSeroepidemiological studies on the prevalence of antibodies to malaria antigens are primarily conducted on individuals from regions of endemicity. It is therefore difficult to accurately correlate the antibody responses to the timing and number of prior malaria infections. This study was undertaken to assess the evolution of antibodies to the dominant surface antigens ofPlasmodium vivaxandP. falciparumfollowing controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) in malaria-naive individuals. Serum samples from malaria-naive adults, collected before and after CHMI with eitherP. vivax(n= 18) orP. falciparum(n= 18), were tested for the presence of antibodies to the circumsporozoite protein (CSP) and the 42-kDa fragment of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP-142) ofP. vivaxandP. falciparumusing an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Approximately 1 month following CHMI with eitherP. vivaxorP. falciparum, >60% of subjects seroconverted to homologous CSP and MSP-1. More than 50% of the subjects demonstrated reactivity to heterologous CSP and MSP-142, and a similar proportion of subjects remained seropositive to homologous MSP-142>5 months after CHMI. Computational analysis provides insight into the presence of cross-reactive responses. The presence of long-lived and heterologous reactivity and its functional significance, if any, need to be taken into account while evaluating malaria exposure in field settings.


Blood ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 1402-1409 ◽  
Author(s):  
SM Richards ◽  
TA Olson ◽  
JM McPherson

Abstract Recent clinical data have shown that enzyme replacement therapy with macrophage-targeted glucocerebrosidase (GCR) can be effective in treating type 1 Gaucher disease. Sera from 262 patients, repeatedly infused with GCR, were assessed for the presence of antibodies to this therapeutic protein. Patient serum samples obtained at 3-month intervals were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and those with values greater than two standard deviations above the mean value obtained with a pool of normal human sera were further characterized by radioimmunoprecipitation. At the time of these analyses, the duration of patient treatment varied from 3 months to approximately 3 years. Of the 262 patients analyzed, 34 (12.9%) showed IgG antibodies, as confirmed by radioimmunoprecipitation. All patients who seroconverted did so within 1 year of treatment. The predominant antibody developed was the IgG1 subclass. Fourteen patients in the study experienced periodic symptoms suggestive of immediate hypersensitivity. Nine of these 14 patients had antibody to GCR as determined by radioimmunoprecipitation, whereas 5 patients were antibody negative. There was no evidence of the development of IgE antibodies in these 14 patients. The presence of GCR antibodies did not appear to effect efficacy of therapy in any of the patients treated to date.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourena E. Costa ◽  
Mayara I. S. Lima ◽  
Miguel A. Chávez-Fumagalli ◽  
Daniel Menezes-Souza ◽  
Vivian T. Martins ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTVisceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a zoonotic disease that is endemic to Brazil, where dogs are the main domestic parasite reservoirs, and the percentages of infected dogs living in regions where canine VL (CVL) is endemic have ranged from 10% to 62%. Despite technological advances, some problems have been reported with CVL serodiagnosis. The present study describes a sequential subtractive selection through phage display technology from polyclonal antibodies of negative and positive sera that resulted in the identification of potential bacteriophage-fused peptides that were highly sensitive and specific to antibodies of CVL. A negative selection was performed in which phage clones were adhered to purified IgGs from healthy andTrypanosoma cruzi-infected dogs to eliminate cross-reactive phages. The remaining supernatant nonadhered phages were submitted to positive selection against IgG from the blood serum of dogs that were infected withLeishmania infantum. Phage clones that adhered to purified IgGs from the CVL-infected serum samples were selected. Eighteen clones were identified and their reactivities tested by a phage enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (phage-ELISA) against the serum samples from infected dogs (n= 31) compared to those from vaccinated dogs (n= 21), experimentally infected dogs with cross-reactive parasites (n= 23), and healthy controls (n= 17). Eight clones presented sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of 100%, and they showed no cross-reactivity withT. cruzi- orEhrlichia canis-infected dogs or with dogs vaccinated with two different commercial CVL vaccines in Brazil. Our study identified eight mimotopes ofL. infantumantigens with 100% accuracy for CVL serodiagnosis. The use of these mimotopes by phage-ELISA proved to be an excellent assay that was reproducible, simple, fast, and inexpensive, and it can be applied in CVL-monitoring programs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1557-1565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Heller ◽  
Nimmo Gicheru ◽  
Georgina Tjipura-Zaire ◽  
Cecilia Muriuki ◽  
Mingyan Yu ◽  
...  

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a severe respiratory disease that is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused byMycoplasma mycoidessubsp.mycoides, a bacterium belonging to theMycoplasma mycoidescluster. In the absence of an efficient CBPP vaccine, improved and easy-to-use diagnostic assays for recurrent testing combined with isolation and treatment of positive animals represent an option for CBPP control in Africa. Here we describe the comprehensive screening of 17 immunogenicMycoplasma mycoidessubsp.mycoidesproteins using well-characterized bovine sera for the development of a novel cocktail enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for laboratory use. Two recombinantMycoplasmaimmunogens, MSC_0136 and MSC_0636, were used to set up a standardized cocktail ELISA protocol. According to the results from more than 100 serum samples tested, the sensitivity and specificity of the novel cocktail ELISA were 85.6% and 96.4%, respectively, with an overall diagnostic accuracy comparable to that of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE)-prescribed serological assays. In addition, we provide a proof of principle for a field-applicable, easy-to-use commercially produced prototype lateral-flow test for rapid (<30-min) diagnosis of CBPP.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 3859-3863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul J. Santivañez ◽  
Mary L. Rodriguez ◽  
Silvia Rodriguez ◽  
Yashuito Sako ◽  
Agathe Nkouawa ◽  
...  

Diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis (CE) is based on the identification of the cyst(s) by imaging, using immunodiagnostic tests mainly as complementary tools in clinical settings. Among the antigens used for immunodiagnosis, previous studies described a good performance of the recombinant antigen B8/1 (rAgB) in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format; however, in remote parts of areas where the disease is endemic, the implementation of an ELISA is difficult, so a more simple, rapid, and reliable method such as the immunochromatographic test (ICT) is required. In this study, using a set of 50 serum samples from patients with surgically confirmed CE, we compared the performance of an ICT and that of an ELISA using the rAgB. The overall sensitivities of ICT and ELISA were not statistically different (78% versus 72%;P= 0.36). The overall agreement between both tests was moderate (κ = 0.41;P< 0.01). Concordance between ICT and ELISA was substantial or almost perfect for patients with liver involvement (κ = 0.65;P< 0.001) and patients with more than one hydatid cyst (κ = 0.82;P< 0.001), respectively. Moreover, specificity analysis using a total of 88 serum samples from healthy individuals (n= 20) and patients (n= 68) with other parasitic infections revealed that ICT had a specificity of 89.8%. ICT and ELISA had similar performance for the detection of specific antibodies toE. granulosus, and ICT had a high specificity, opening the possibility of using ICT as a screening tool in rural settings.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Arnaboldi ◽  
Rudra Seedarnee ◽  
Mariya Sambir ◽  
Steven M. Callister ◽  
Josephine A. Imparato ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTCurrent serodiagnostic assays for Lyme disease are inadequate at detecting early infection due to poor sensitivity and nonspecificity that arise from the use of whole bacteria or bacterial proteins as assay targets; both targets contain epitopes that are cross-reactive with epitopes found in antigens of other bacterial species. Tests utilizing peptides that contain individual epitopes highly specific forBorrelia burgdorferias diagnostic targets are an attractive alternative to current assays. Using an overlapping peptide library, we mapped linear epitopes in OspC, a critical virulence factor ofB. burgdorferirequired for mammalian infection, and confirmed the results by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We identified a highly conserved 20-amino-acid peptide epitope, OspC1. Via ELISA, OspC1 detected specific IgM and/or IgG in 60 of 98 serum samples (62.1%) obtained from patients with erythema migrans (early Lyme disease) at the time of their initial presentation. By comparison, the commercially available OspC peptide PepC10 detected antibody in only 48 of 98 serum samples (49.0%). In addition, OspC1 generated fewer false-positive results among negative healthy and diseased (rheumatoid arthritis and positive Rapid Plasma Reagin [RPR+] test result) control populations than did PepC10. Both highly specific and more sensitive than currently available OspC peptides, OspC1 could have value as a component of a multipeptide Lyme disease serological assay with significantly improved capabilities for the diagnosis of early infection.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1569-1577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelfattah M. Attallah ◽  
Faisal A. Bughdadi ◽  
Atef M. El-Shazly ◽  
Hisham Ismail

ABSTRACTCurrently, the laboratory diagnosis of human fascioliasis is based on the parasitological examination of parasite eggs in stool specimens and serological detection of specific antibodies in serum samples, which are often unreliable diagnostic approaches. Ideally, a sensitive and specific diagnostic test forFasciolainfection should be based on the detection of circulatingFasciolaantigen, which implies active infection. Here, a 27-kDa-molecular-mass antigen was identified in aFasciola giganticaadult worm antigen preparation, excretory-secretory products, and sera fromF. gigantica-infected individuals, and it was not detected in antigenic extracts of other parasites and sera from noninfected individuals. The target antigen was isolated and partially characterized as a protein. Immunoperoxidase staining located the target epitope within teguments and guts ofF. giganticaadult worms. The performance characteristics of a newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based onF. giganticacirculating antigen detection in serum (FgCA-27 ELISA) were investigated using sera of 120 parasitologically diagnosedF. gigantica-infected individuals and 80 noninfected individuals. The area under the receiving operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for ELISA was significantly high (AUC = 0.961,P< 0.0001) for discriminatingFasciola-infected and noninfected individuals. The developed assay showed high degrees of sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency (>93%), and a significant correlation (r= 0.715,P< 0.0001) between antigen level and parasite egg count was shown. In conclusion, a 27-kDaFasciolaantigen was identified in sera ofF. gigantica-infected individuals. A highly sensitive and specificFasciolaantigen detection assay, FgCA-27 ELISA, was developed for laboratory diagnosis of human fascioliasis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neekun Sharma ◽  
Akitoyo Hotta ◽  
Yoshie Yamamoto ◽  
Osamu Fujita ◽  
Akihiko Uda ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTA novel competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) was developed and evaluated for detection of antibodies againstFrancisella tularensisin humans. The assay is based on the ability of serum antibodies to inhibit the binding of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) directed againstF. tularensislipopolysaccharide antigens. The assay was evaluated using serum samples of tularemia patients, inactivatedF. tularensis-immunized rabbits, andF. tularensis-infected mice. Antibodies againstF. tularensiswere successfully detected in serum samples of tularemia patients as well as the immunized and infected animals. The cELISA method was compared to indirect ELISA (iELISA) and the commonly used microagglutination test (MA) using serum samples of 19 tularemia patients and 50 healthy individuals. The sensitivity and specificity of cELISA were 93.9 and 96.1%, respectively, in comparison to the iELISA. MA was less sensitive than cELISA with a sensitivity and specificity of only 81.8 and 98.0%, respectively. A high degree of correlation (R2= 0.8226) was observed between cELISA and iELISA results. The novel cELISA developed in this study appears to be highly sensitive and specific for serodiagnosis of human tularemia. The potential of the MAb-based cELISA to be used in both human and animal samples emphasizes its usefulness for serological survey of tularemia among multiple animal species.


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