Cysticercosis Infection Research Articles

Isolation and purification of a diagnostic antigen for bovine cysticercosis by hydrophobic chromatography

An ammonium sulfate fraction of Taenia hydatigena cyst fluid (ThFAS) was further fractionated by hydrophobic interaction chromatography, using alkylagarose and ω-amino alkylagarose columns, in an effort to isolate and purify a specific diagnostic antigen in the ThFAS preparation. The < 12kDa antigen was found to have an affinity for immobilized alkanes with chain length of six carbons or greater. The antigen was recovered in an ethylene glycol eluate from a hexylagarose column then analyzed by Western blot; it reacted with bovine and human cysticercosis infection sera and with specific monoclonal antibodies but not with control sera or fascioliasis infection sera. When the eluate was used as coating antigen in a plate ELISA assay no false positive reactions were seen in sera from cattle infected with Fasciola hepatica; false positive reactions were observed for the unfractionated ThFAS antigen preparation.

A new plain film finding in cysticercosis

Lytic lesions of the skull due to cysticercosis are described. Encysted larvae in the subarachnoid space eroded the inner table of the skull in a 10-year-old Guatemalan male. In an area with endemic cysticercosis infections, this diagnosis should be considered when round, lytic defects are demonstrated in a skull radiograph.

Immunodiagnosis of human cysticercosis (Taenia solium) with antigens purified by monoclonal antibodies.

Monoclonal antibodies were generated from mice immunized with scolex protein antigen of Cysticercus cellulosae. Three monoclonal antibodies specific for cysticercal antigens, which did not show any cross-reactivity with Taenia solium or Taenia saginata antigens, were selected. Each monoclonal antibody coupled to Sepharose could purify one antigen, which appeared as a single band on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. When antigens purified by monoclonal antibodies were used to detect antibody in serum samples taken from patients with cysticercosis, taeniasis, and other parasitic infections in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, cross-reactivity was observed until a serum dilution of 1:128 was reached. Since serum samples from unexposed subjects showed positive reactions until a dilution of 1:64 was reached, we chose a discriminative dilution (1:128) above which no cross-reaction was observed. The percent positive serum samples from cysticercosis patients was 100% by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with any of the antigens purified by monoclonal antibodies.