Serodiagnosis of human neurocysticercosis using antigenic components of Taenia solium metacestodes derived from the unbound fraction from jacalin affinity chromatography

• Main Authors: Gleyce Alves Machado, Heliana Batista de Oliveira, Margareth Leitão Gennari-Cardoso, José Roberto Mineo, Julia Maria Costa-Cruz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2013-05-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: neurocysticercosis; Taenia solium; jacalin; Triton X-114; diagnosis
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762013000300368
• ISSN: 0074-0276; 1678-8060

The aim of the present study was to analyse Taenia solium metacestode antigens that were derived from the unbound fraction of jacalin affinity chromatography and subsequent tert-octylphenoxy poly (oxyethylene) ethanol Triton X-114 (TX-114) partitioning in the diagnosis of human neurocysticercosis (NCC). Immunoassays were designed to detect T. solium-specific IgG antibodies by ELISA and immunoblot. Serum samples were collected from 132 individuals who were categorised as follows: 40 had NCC, 62 presented Taenia spp or other parasitic diseases and 30 were healthy individuals. The jacalin-unbound (J unbound ) fraction presented higher sensitivity and specificity rates than the jacalin-bound fraction and only this fraction was subjected to subsequent TX-114 partitioning, resulting in detergent (DJ unbound ) and aqueous (AJ unbound ) fractions. The ELISA sensitivity and specificity were 85% and 84.8% for J unbound , 92.5% and 93.5% for DJ unbound and 82.5% and 82.6% for AJ unbound . By immunoblot, the DJ unbound fraction showed 100% sensitivity and specificity and only serum samples from patients with NCC recognised the 50-70 kDa T. solium-specific components. We conclude that the DJ unbound fraction can serve as a useful tool for the differential immunodiagnosis of NCC by immunoblot.