Serodiagnosis of parasitic diseases

Abstract

In this review on serodiagnosis of parasitic diseases, antibody detection, antigen detection, use of monoclonal antibodies in parasitic serodiagnosis, molecular biological technology, and skin tests are discussed. The focus at the Centers for Disease Control on developing improved antigens, a truly quantitative FAST-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the very specific immunoblot assays for antibody detection is highlighted. The last two assays are suitable for field studies. Identification of patient response in terms of immunoglobulin class or immunoglobulin G subclass isotypes or both is discussed. Immunoglobulin isotypes may asist in defining the stage of some diseases. In other instances, use of a particular anti-isotype conjugate may increase the specificity of the assay. Monoclonal antibodies have played important roles in antigen purification and identification, in competitive antibody assays with increased sensitivity and specificity, and in assays for antigen detection in serum, body fluids, or excreta. Molecular biological technology has allowed significant advances in the production of defined parasitic serodiagnostic antigens.

Schistosoma mansoni in a low-prevalence area in Brazil: the importance of additional methods for the diagnosis of hard-to-detect individual carriers by low-cost immunological assays

“…Many different assays have been used to display such immunological reactivity, including skin hypersensitivity reactions against injected antigens, complement fixation, indirect immunofluorescence, indirect haemagglutination, radioimmunoassays and various flocculation and precipitation tests (Maddison 1991, Hamilton et al 1998. Thus far, all of these methods have exhibited low sensitivities, demonstrating a lack of correlation between results from the direct and indirect methods.…”

Antigens of worms and eggs showed a differentiated detection of specific IgG according to the time of Schistosoma mansoni infection in mice

“…Many different assays have been used to display such immunological reactivity, including skin hypersensitivity reactions against The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. [17][18][19][20] . But thus far, all these methods revealed low sensitivity, demonstrating the remaining inefficiency correlation between results from direct and indirect methods.…”

Cloning, molecular characterization of a 13-kDa antigen from Schistosoma japonicum, Sj13, a putative salivary diagnosis candidate for Schistosomiasis japonica

“…Detection of salivary antibodies has been studied previously for the diagnosis of various viral infections and parasitic disease including schistosomiasis (Streckfus and Bigler 2002). Saliva assays to test for specific IgG against soluble egg antigens of schistosome were investigated in previous studies, but it could hardly eliminate unwanted cross-reactions with other helminthes infection owing to the homology of many antigens that the parasites possess (Speiser 1985;Maddison 1991). In the present report, an attempt was made, for the first time, to identify schistosome-specific diagnostic antigens recognized by salivary IgG of schistosomiasis patients.…”