No abstract

The dot-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (dot-ELISA) was standardized using somatic (S) and excretory-secretory (ES) antigens of Toxocara-canis for the detection of specific antibodies in 22 serum samples from children aged 1 to 15 years, with clinical signs of toxocariasis. Fourteen serum samples from apparently normal individuals and 28 sera from patients with other pathologies were used as controls. All samples were used before and after absorption with Ascaris suum extract. When the results were evaluated in comparison with ELISA, the two tests were found to have similar sensitivity, but dot-ELISA was found to be more specific in the presence of the two antigens studied. Dot-ELISA proved to be effective for the diagnosis of human toxocariasis, presenting advantages in terms of yield, stability, time and ease of execution and low cost.

Considering the impact of cysticercosis on public health, especially the neurologic form of the disease, neurocysticercosis (NC), we studied the frequency of positivity of anti-Taenia solium cysticercus antibodies in serum samples from 1,863 inhabitants of Cássia dos Coqueiros, SP, a municipal district located 80 km from Ribeirão Preto, an area considered endemic for cysticercosis. The 1,863 samples were tested by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using an antigenic extract from Taenia crassiceps vesicular fluid (Tcra). The reactive and inconclusive ELISA samples were tested by immunoblotting. Of the 459 samples submitted to immunoblotting, 40 were strongly immunoreactive to the immunodominant 18 and 14 kD peptides. Considering the use of immunoblotting as confirmatory due to its high specificity, the anti-cysticercus serum prevalence in this population was 2.1%.

No abstract

The serodiagnosis of Chagas' disease, a highly prevalent disorder in South American countries, is usually made by the detection of antibodies to Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigote antigen. In this study, we assess the diagnostic performance of the immunofluorescence test with T. cruzi (Y strain) amastigote antigen from an LLC-MK2-infected cell supernatant in comparison with a test with the conventional epimastigote antigen. A total of 238 serum samples from patients in the acute and chronic phases of the disease, with the chronic indeterminate, cardiac, and digestive forms, and from nonchagasic individuals were tested for the presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgM, and IgA antibodies. The reactivity of the amastigote antigen in terms of geometric mean titers was 2 to 4 times higher than that of the epimastigote antigen. Clear-cut results were obtained with the amastigote antigen, with no overlapping of true and false positives. IgG antibodies to amastigotes were found in all patients with Chagas' disease, whereas all sera from nonchagasic patients were negative, except for those from patients with visceral leishmaniasis, in which 63% cross-reactivity was observed. IgM antibodies to amastigotes were detected in 100% of sera from patients with acute Chagas' disease and in 7.5% of sera from patients with chronic Chagas' disease, whereas IgA antibodies were found in 60% of sera from patients in the acute phase and in 33% of sera from patients in the chronic phase. Despite the cross-reactivity observed with sera from visceral leishmaniasis patients, the IgG immunofluorescence test with the amastigote antigen had the highest sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency. No relationship was observed between the class-specific antibodies or their titers and the clinical forms of patients in the chronic phase. Amastigotes from the cell culture supernatant proved to be useful as an alternative antigen to epimastigotes because of their high resolution in the serodiagnosis of Chagas' disease.