Determination of Schistosoma japonicum circulating antigens in dilution serum by piezoelectric immunosensor and S/N enhancement.

A piezoelectric immunosensor assay was developed with immobilizing immunoglobulin G (IgG) as a probe to detect Schistosoma japonicum circulating antigens (SjCAg). Analytical strategy utilizes the polyclonal antibodies with broad-spectrum recognition to a complex target with high specificity. The immobilized antibodies were purified from immunized rabbit's sera (im-S) and infected rabbit's sera (inf-S) by S. japonicum. The detection capacities of antibodies were compared between the sera of different phenotypes and purified fractions. The sample dilution ratios were also evaluated and optimized. Additionally, the sera with a variety of infection degrees for validation could be discriminated quantitatively. The linear dose-response relationship indicates that the systematic sensitivity of this method is below 150 Hz and the lowest limit of detectable range is above 500 cercariae of S. japonicum infection for 2 weeks. The novel immunosensor technique is well potential to determine the SjCAg in serum samples for clinical diagnosis of parasitosis in early stage.