PRODUCTION AND CROSS-REACTIVITY PATTERNS OF A PANEL OF HIGH-AFFINITY MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES TO VIBRIO-CHOLERAE O139 BENGAL

A series of monoclonal antibodies of different isotypes specific for V ibrio cholerae O139, the new pandemic strain of cholera, was produced. These mAbs reacted only with the reference strain (MO45) representing serovar O139 but did not react with any of the other reference strain s representing serovars O1 to O140. Significantly, the mAbs did not ag glutinate the R-cultures of V. cholerae (CA385, 20-93) which demonstra ted the exceptional specificity of these mAbs and indicated that the m Abs recognized antigenic determinants unique for the O139 serovar. The re was heterogeneity in the intensity of reactivity of the mAbs with s trains of V. cholerae O139 isolated from diverse sources. Apart from 4 H6, the other mAbs agglutinated air the O139 strains examined. 2D12 an d 2F8 were the best mAbs based on the intensity of agglutination with all the O139 strains. Evaluation of 3A10 in comparison with a polyclon al anti-O139 antibody raised in rabbit using the slide agglutination f ormat revealed that 3A10 fared as well as the polyclonal antibody for the laboratory identification of the O139 serovar. The acquisition of these mAbs provide reagents which would be very useful in the developm ent of simple immunodiagnostic assays for the diagnosis of V. cholerae O139 infections.