IMMUNOBLOT ANALYSIS OF LEISHMANIA-PANAMENSIS ANTIGENS IN SERA OF PATIENTS WITH AMERICAN CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS

Sera from 86 Colombian patients with parasitologically confirmed cutan eous leishmaniasis were studied by Immunoblot analysis in order to ide ntify a specific pattern for Leishmania infection, A soluble extract o f Leishmania panamensis was used as the antigen, Sera from patients wi th Chagas' disease and sera from patients with no record of infection with trypanosomatids were also studied, The sera from patients with cu taneous leishmaniasis specifically recognized fractions of 120 kDa (76 .7%), 123 and 129 kDa (69.7%), 138 kDa (61.6%), 141 kDa (53.4%), and 7 8 kDa (44.1%), No band common to all patients infected with Leishmania parasites was found at the time of diagnosis, Likewise, the pattern o f immunoblot change after the patients were treated and apparently cur ed with meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime) was studied by evaluating s era pretreatment and 1 year posttreatment, Only minor changes in the c olor intensity at the same serum dilution between pre-and posttreatmen t sera were found, although the antibody titers by indirect immunofluo rescence were negative for the posttreatment sample, This study shows that Western blot analysis is a more sensitive test for the detection of anti-Leishmania antibodies, However, the importance of whether the presence of antibodies correlates with the presence of Leishmania anti gens could not be resolved by the data obtained from this study.