Production of monoclonal antibodies to the non-membrane-damaging cytotoxin (NMDCY) purified from Vibrio cholerae O26 and distribution of NMDCY among strains of Vibrio cholerae and other enteric bacteria determined by monoclonal-polyclonal sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Abstract

The distribution of a newly described secretogenic non-membrane-damaging cytotoxin (NMDCY) among strains of Vibrio cholerae and other enteric bacteria was determined. To accomplish this, monoclonal antibodies against NMDCY were prepared and a sandwich monoclonal-polyclonal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed. By the sandwich ELISA, it was determined that 55.6% of the 412 strains of V. cholerae examined produced NMDCY at varying concentrations while 76, 37.9, and 15.6% of the clinical strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Aeromonas spp., and Shigella spp., respectively, produced NMDCY. Because of its enterotoxigenic potential and based on its widespread distribution among strains of V. cholerae, we believe that NMDCY may constitute an important virulence determinant in the cascade of events which enable the organism to precipitate the disease.