AIM: To detect circulating antigen(CAg) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) from patients with cerebral cysticercosis with specific antiserum by sandwich ELISA. METHODS: Antisera were prepared from rabbits immunized respectively with 3 antigens with molecule weights of 64 kDa, 53 kDa, 32 kDa-30 kDa extracted from Cysticercus cellulosae and purified by SDS-PAGE. RESULTS: When samples from patients were tested with antiserum against 53 kDa antigen, the CAg positive rate was 93.8% in serum and 91.7% in CSF of 32 patients with active cysticercosis, whereas only one positive was found in CSF in 16 patients with inactive cysticercosis. The detection rate of CAg was significantly higher with anti-53 kDa antiserum than with anti-64 kDa and anti-32 kDa-30 kDa antiserum. CONCLUSION: Sandwich-ELISA using antiserum against 53 kDa antigen to detect CAg was found to be a promising assay for diagnosis and evaluation of treatment efficacy of active cerebral cysticercosis in terms of its high sensitivity and specificity.
AIM: To detect circulating antigen(CAg) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) from patients with cerebral cysticercosis with specific antiserum by sandwich ELISA. METHODS: Antisera were prepared from rabbits immunized respectively with 3 antigens with molecule weights of 64 kDa, 53 kDa, 32 kDa-30 kDa extracted from Cysticercus cellulosae and purified by SDS-PAGE. RESULTS: When samples from patients were tested with antiserum against 53 kDa antigen, the CAg positive rate was 93.8% in serum and 91.7% in CSF of 32 patients with active cysticercosis, whereas only one positive was found in CSF in 16 patients with inactive cysticercosis. The detection rate of CAg was significantly higher with anti-53 kDa antiserum than with anti-64 kDa and anti-32 kDa-30 kDa antiserum. CONCLUSION: Sandwich-ELISA using antiserum against 53 kDa antigen to detect CAg was found to be a promising assay for diagnosis and evaluation of treatment efficacy of active cerebral cysticercosis in terms of its high sensitivity and specificity.