DETECTION OF SPECIFIC ANTIBODIES TO AN ANTIGENIC MANNOPROTEIN FOR DIAGNOSIS OF PENICILLIUM-MARNEFFEI PENICILLIOSIS

The disseminated and progressive fungal disease Penicillium marneffei penicilliosis is one of the most common infectious diseases in AIDS pa tients in Southeast Asia. To diagnose systemic penicilliosis, me devel oped an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based antibody test with Mp1p, a purified recombinant antigenic mannoprotein of P, marneff ei. Evaluation of the test with guinea pig sera against P. marneffei a nd other pathogenic fungi indicated that this assay mas specific for P , marneffei. Clinical evaluation revealed that high levels of specific antibody mere detected in two immunocompetent penicilliosis patients. Furthermore, approximately 80% (14 of 17) of the documented penicilli osis patients with human immunodeficiency virus tested positive for th e specific antibody. No false-positive results mere found for serum sa mples from 90 healthy blood donors, 20 patients with typhoid fever, an d 55 patients with tuberculosis, indicating a high specificity of the test. Thus, this ELISA-based test for the detection of anti-Mp1p antib ody can be of significant value as a diagnostic for penicilliosis.