[A study on the monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibody NP30 for the diagnosis of schistosomiasis japonica]

In this study the ability of the monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibody NP30 was tested as a substitute of diagnostic antigen in detecting antibody of Schistosoma japonicum from human sera by use of ELISA. The results showed that the seropositive rate was 98% with NP30 in the group of acute infection, which was comparable to 94% with gut associated antigens (GAA) and 98% with the soluble egg antigens (SEA); 87% with NP30 in the group of chronic infection which was comparable to 86% with GAA but lower than that of 98% with SEA. The false positive rate was about 3% for all three diagnostic antigens. The results also showed that the geometric mean titer (GMT) of antibody to NP30 was higher than that to GAA but lower than that to SEA in the acute infection group and the GMT of antibody to NP30 was lower than both those to GAA and to SEA in the chronic infection group, suggesting that the antibody to NP30 appeared earlier and decayed more quickly during the process of infection. The authors suggested that NP30 could be used for the diagnosis of schistosomiasis japonica.