COMPARATIVE-EVALUATION OF PURIFIED TAENIA-SOLIUM GLYCOPROTEINS AND CRUDE METACESTODE EXTRACTS BY IMMUNOBLOTTING FOR THE SERODIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN T-SOLIUM CYSTICERCOSIS

A lentil-lectin purified glycoprotein (LL-Gp) and a crude saline extra ct of Taenia solium metacestodes were compared for the immunodiagnosis of human cysticercosis by immunoblotting. The LL-Gp preparation was 9 5% sensitive for antibodies against a range of seven antigens with mol ecular masses of 50 to 13 kDa, whereas the sensitivity of the crude sa line extract for the detection of antibodies against two major polypep tide molecules (26 and 8 kDa) was 91%, Specificity was 100% with both sets of diagnostic antigens, Affinity-purified antibodies against the 26-kDa molecule from the crude saline extract recognized the 24-kDa di agnostic region in the LL-Gp-purified extract and vice versa, suggesti ng that the antigens had common epitopes recognized by cysticercotic s era. In addition, in a preliminary community study of 115 randomly sel ected people from Bali (Indonesia), seroprevalence by immunoblot assay varied from 7.8% (with the crude saline antigen extract) to 9.6% (wit h the LL-Gp-purified extract). The results of this study demonstrate t hat both antigenic preparations are applicable for the immunodiagnosis of T. solium cysticercosis, The crude T. solium metacestode antigen e xtract was as specific as the purified LL-Gp T. solium metacestode ext ract and simpler to produce but slightly less sensitive.