Cysticercosis: towards the design of a diagnostic kit based on synthetic peptides

Cysticercosis caused by Taenia solium is a very common disease in developin g countries that seriously affects human health. Diagnosis can only be conf irmed with the aid of computerized tomography or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) creating obvious difficulties for epidemiological studies. Reliable immunoassays employing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have been developed. based on the use of cysticercal antigens. However, the reliance on parasite mate rial is restrictive. Herein, we report the advances in the design of a diag nostic kit based on immunodominant synthetic peptides, targeting four candi date epitopes KETc1, KETcl2, 410 and 413 which were identified from three d ifferent clones (KETc1. 12 and 4) selected from a cDNA library of Taenia cr assiceps. CSF antibodies against T. solium cysticercal antigens (TCA) as we ll as the four peptides were determined by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent as says (ELISA) using two panels of CSF from patients with confirmed neurocyst icercosis and other neurological diseases. In the first CSF panel which inc luded patients with high level of antibodies against TCA, KETcl2 exhibited almost the: same sensitivity (87.5%) as TCA (93.7%) and 100% specificity. I n the second panel of 110 CSF collected at random. two peptides (KETc1 and KETcl2) exhibited sensitivities of 40 and 36%. respectively, and were 100% specific. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.