V. Chenthamarakshan et al., DIAGNOSTIC POTENTIAL OF FRACTIONATED BRUGIA-MALAYI MICROFILARIAL EXCRETORY SECRETORY ANTIGEN FOR BANCROFTIAN FILARIASIS/, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 90(3), 1996, pp. 252-254
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Tropical Medicine
Due to the non-availability of sufficient parasite material from Wuche
reria bancrofti, a heterologous filarial antigen from Brugia malayi ha
s been investigated for the diagnosis of bancroftian filariasis. B. ma
layi microfilarial excretory/secretory antigen (BmmfES) effectively in
hibited the binding of circulating filarial antigen fractions (CFA(2)-
1, 9, 11 and 12) from microfilaraemic cases, and of W. bancrofti micro
filarial excretory/secretory antigen, to the immunoglobulin G (IgG) fr
action of anti-filarial serum immunoglobulins. BmmfES was separated by
ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE cellulose into 2 fractions, BmE D
E1 and BmE DE2. BmE DE1 was marginally superior to whole BmmfES and Bm
E DE2 in detecting filarial IgG antibodies in human sera. 230 human se
ra from different groups of patients were screened against BmE DE1, wh
ich detected specific IgG in 83% of sera from microfilaraemic donors,
83% of sera from patients with clinical filariasis, 17% of sera from n
ormal residents of an endemic area, and in none of the sera from perso
ns living in a non-endemic area. The assay system using BmE DE1, with
a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 83%, should be very useful in
detecting microfilaraemia, particularly in active clinical infections
where the parasite is usually not seen.