Abstract
The clinical diagnosis of trichinellosis is difficult because its clinical manifestations are nonspecific. Detection of anti-Trichinella IgG by ELISA using T. spiralis muscle larval excretory-secretory (ES) antigens is the most commonly used serological method for diagnosis of trichinellosis, but the main disadvantage is false negativity during the early stage of infection. There is an obvious window period between Trichinella infection and antibody positivity.During the intestinal stage of Trichinella infection, the ES antigens of intestinal worms (intestinal infective larvae and adults) are exposed to host’s immune system at the earliest time and elicit the production of specific anti-Trichinella antibodies. Anti-Trichinella IgG antibodies in infected mice were detectable by ELISA with ES antigens of intestinal worms as soon as 8–10 days post infection (dpi), but ELISA with muscle larval ES antigens did not permit detection of infected mice before 12 dpi. Therefore, the new early antigens from T. spiralis intestinal worms should be screened, identified and characterized for early serodiagnosis of trichinellosis.
Highlights
Trichinellosis is a major food-borne parasitic zoonosis acquired by eating raw or undercooked meat contaminated with the infective larvae of the genus Trichinella
The detection of antiTrichinella IgG by ELISA using excretory–secretory (ES) antigens of T. spiralis muscle larvae (ML) is the most commonly used method for serodiagnosis of trichinellosis and is recommended by the International Commission on Trichinellosis (ICT), because ML are collected from experimentally infected animals and their ES antigens can be prepared by the in vitro cultivation of larvae [14]
The main disadvantage of the detection of anti-Trichinella IgG by using ML ES antigens is the occurrence of a high rate of false negative results during the early stage of infection [15], possibly because the majority of ML ES antigens are stagespecific and not recognized by specific antibodies induced by the parasites during the intestinal phase [16]
Summary
The indirect immunofluorescence test (IIF) with frozen sections of infected tissue or isolated whole ML as antigens could detect specific antibodies in sera of experimentally infected mice 1–2 weeks after infection or sera of patients with trichinellosis from day 6 after the onset of illness [17, 18], but cross-reactions with Trichinella antigens were observed in the patients with autoimmune diseases and other helminthiases because IIF is based on cuticle surface antigens of ML [19] This is important in regions where other human helminthiases (e.g., ascariasis, trichuriasis, clonorchiasis, paragonimiasis, cysticercosis and so on) are common and cross-reactions with these parasites could give could give false positive results [20]. It is necessary to exploit the new source of early diagnostic antigens for detection of anti-Trichinella antibodies
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