RK39 - A CLONED ANTIGEN OF LEISHMANIA-CHAGASI THAT PREDICTS ACTIVE VISCERAL LEISHMANIASIS

The diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a serious and often fata l parasitic disease caused by members of the Leishmania donovani compl ex, remains problematic, Current methods rely on clinical criteria, pa rasite identification in aspirate material, and serology, The latter m ethods use crude antigen preparations lacking in specificity, A previo usly described cloned antigen, rK39, of Leishmania specific for all me mbers of the L. donovani complex (L. chagasi, L. donovani, L. infantum ) was very useful in the serodiagnosis by ELISA of both human and cani ne VL, The present study demonstrated that rK39 seroreactivity correla ted with active disease, The sera from early or self-healing infected subjects reacted with leishmanial lysate and were generally nonreactiv e with rK39. These data demonstrate the utility of rK39 in the serodia gnosis of VL and as an indicator of active disease.