1. A strategy for identifying serodiagnostically relevant antigens of Leishmania or other pathogens in genetic libraries
- Author
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Ricardo Ribeiro-dos-Santos, Milena Botelho Pereira Soares, Washington Luis Conrado dosSantos, Selma M. B. Jeronimo, Lain Pontes-de-Carvalho, Geraldo G. S. Oliveira, Marco A. Silvany, Carlos Henrique Nery Costa, Márcia Cristina Aquino Teixeira, Neuza Maria Alcântara-Neves, and Daniel Eichinger
- Subjects
Blotting, Western ,Antibodies, Protozoan ,Bioengineering ,Antigens, Protozoan ,Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,law.invention ,Antigen ,law ,Reference Values ,parasitic diseases ,medicine ,Parasite hosting ,Animals ,Humans ,Parasites ,False Negative Reactions ,Gene Library ,Pharmacology ,Leishmania ,General Immunology and Microbiology ,biology ,General Medicine ,Dipstick ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Virology ,Visceral leishmaniasis ,Immunology ,biology.protein ,Recombinant DNA ,Leishmaniasis, Visceral ,Leishmania infantum ,Antibody ,Biotechnology - Abstract
Different individuals, when infected with the same parasite, rarely produce antibodies against the same set of antigens. Indeed, unless a particular antigen happens to be recognized by antibodies in all individuals, the use of a single antigen in the serodiagnosis of parasitic diseases leads, invariably, to false-negative results. A straightforward method for pin-pointing, in genetic libraries, the precise antigens that would increase serodiagnostic assay sensitivities is presented. The method is based on the utilization of sera that produced false-negative results against previously available antigens. Employing this false-negative serum-selection methodology for the identification of new Leishmania infantum recombinant antigens (rAgs), the sensitivity of a dipstick assay for anti-Leishmania antibodies in a panel of sera from patients with visceral leishmaniasis was increased from 83.3% to 98.1%, without affecting its specificity, by the inclusion of a fifth and a sixth L. infantum rAg.
- Published
- 2005