Production of monoclonal antibody to a phenolic glycolipid of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its use in detection of the antigen in clinical isolates.
A monoclonal antibody (MAbIII604) specific to phenolic glycolipid Tb (PGL-Tb), a Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigen, was produced and used in the detection of the antigen. MAbIII604 reacted with the PGL-Tb antigen but not with other phenolic glycolipids from Mycobacterium leprae, M. bovis, and M. kansasii, thus indicating the specificity of the monoclonal antibody to PGL-Tb. A dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with MAbIII604 was employed to detect the PGL-Tb antigen in lipids purified from M. tuberculosis clinical isolates. Of 50 isolates, 32 (64.0%) showed clear evidence of the PGL-Tb antigen by the dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, but there were marked variations in the intensities and sizes of spots. This suggests differences in PGL-Tb antigen production among M. tuberculosis strains even when they are grown in the same culture media and conditions. This was most evident from the fact that in only eight (16.0%) of the isolates examined was the PGL-Tb antigen detectable by thin-layer chromatography, which is much less sensitive for the detection of glycolipid antigens. This study shows that monoclonal antibodies specific to PGL-Tb are useful in detecting the antigen in lipid extracts and that there is a marked variation in the PGL-Tb production among M. tuberculosis clinical isolates.
Cho
S N
SN
Department of Microbiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Shin
J S
JS
Daffe
M
M
Chong
Y
Y
Kim
S K
SK
Kim
J D
JD
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D006017:Glycolipids; C045169:phenolic glycolipid I, Mycobacterium leprae