title: Enzyme immunoassay of phagocytosis stimulating tetrapeptide "tuftsin" in normal and leprosy sera.
abstract: The serum concentrations of the phagocytosis stimulating the tetrapeptide, tuftsin, were determined by competitive enzyme immunoassay in borderline tuberculoid/tuberculoid (BT/TT, 16 cases), borderline lepromatous/lepromatous (BL/LL, 16 cases), and in healthy controls (20 cases). Using checkerboard titration, 10 ng/well of diphtheria toxoid-p-aminophenylacetyl tuftsin (DTPT) conjugate when incubated with tuftsin antisera at 1:15,000 dilution with a preincubation time of 60 min with the competitor (tuftsin) followed by a further 60-min incubation onto the DTPT-coated wells gave consistent results with a sensitivity of 5 ng/well tuftsin. The mean serum tuftsin concentration was significantly lower in BL/LL patients (134.42 +/- 48.7 ng/ml, p less than 0.01) than in healthy controls (262.86 +/- 59.8 ng/ml), while BT/TT sera (210.94 +/- 75.5 ng/ml) showed slightly decreased levels than did normals, which was not statistically significant. The mean serum IgG levels in BL/LL and BT/TT patients (37.26 +/- 10.99 mg/ml; 28.08 +/- 6.57 mg/ml, respectively) showed significantly (p less than 0.001) higher concentrations than did healthy controls (12.3 +/- 3.6 mg/ml). These observations on the serum concentrations of tuftsin and IgG in leprosy individuals suggest that there is splenic dysfunction in BL/LL patients in terms of the processing of leukokinin to release the free, active molecule tuftsin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khare
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Bhutani
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D001667:Binding, Competitive; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007918:Leprosy / Q000097:blood*; D015439:Leprosy, Borderline / Q000097:blood; D015440:Leprosy, Lepromatous / Q000097:blood; D015441:Leprosy, Tuberculoid / Q000097:blood; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014405:Tuftsin / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014405:Tuftsin