Gelatin particle indirect agglutination test for mass examination for strongyloidiasis

Abstract

An indirect agglutination test using recently developed gelatin particles was assessed to determine its applicability as a screening test for mass examination for strongyloidiasis. 1199 individuals in Sashiki Town, Okinawa Island, were screened by the test and 34.7% were determined to be antibody positive. Follow-up examination of the persons whose sera showed positive antibody responses demonstrated the presence of faecal larvae in 41.7%. The calculated infection rate (14.5%) was similar (14.1%) to that indicated by another survey using the micro-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (micro-ELISA), conducted simultaneously among the inhabitants. The indirect agglutination test was simple to perform in a short time and without specialized equipment. Additionally, the gelatin particles have many advantages as an antigen carrier, e.g. in handling, reading of the resulting pattern, and stable, long-term preservation. The test was considered to be more convenient than the micro-ELISA for mass screening for strongyloidiasis.

Comparative Assessment of the Gelatin Particle Agglutination Test and an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosis of Strongyloidiasis

“…The observed cross-reactivity was therefore probably associated with multiple infections or previous exposure to the helminths and was partially due to the nature of the crude somatic extract of the antigen of S. stercoralis used in GPAT and ELISA. A similar cross-reactivity of GPAT to hookworms and the agents responsible for angiostrongyliasis, sparganosis, and cysticercosis was reported previously (25). The sera of individuals with occult filariasis and schistosomiasis also showed consistent cross-reactions by the indirect hemagglutination test (8).…”

“…Alternatively, the gelatin particle agglutination test (GPAT) is simpler to perform, as it requires no special equipment and it is less labor-intensive and much cheaper than ELISA. It has been widely used as a tool for the screening of several infectious diseases, such as leprosy (12), Mycobacterum leprae infection (7), human immunodeficiency virus infection (30), as well as strongyloidiasis (25).…”

“…GPAT was performed as described by Sato et al (25). The unsensitized gelatin particles (Fujirebio Inc., Japan) were suspended in PBS (pH 6.4), washed four times in PBS, and adjusted to a concentration of 3%.…”

Detection of antibodies to Parastrongylus cantonensis in human sera by gelatin particle indirect agglutination test.

“…The recently developed inert gelatin particles are actively being employed as an antigen carrier for various diagnostic kits, and GPAT has already been successfully applied by a number of investigators for immunodiagnosis of various parasitic infections (Sato and Ryumon, 1990;Yamashita et al, 1994;Yang et al, 1994;Kobayashi et al, 1995;Wattanakulpanich et al, 1998) . In the present study, we confirmed the findings that GPAT could also be used for immunodiagnosis of human parastrongyliasis.…”

“…The test, nevertheless, requires specific materials, specialized equipment and expensive reagents. Recently, a newly developed agglutination test using gelatin particle as an antigen carrier has been shown to be a sensitive and specific method for the diagnosis of human strongyloidiasis (Sato and Ryumon, 1990) , schistosomiasis (Yang et al, 1994;Kobayashi, 1995) , Chagas' disease (Yamashita et al, 1994) and opisthorchiasis (Watthanakulpanich at al., 1998) . GPAT is technically simple and can be performed rapidly without specialized apparatus or facilities.…”