title: Distribution of antibody titres against phenolic glycolipids from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the sera from tuberculosis patients and healthy controls.
abstract: Sera from tuberculosis (TB) patients and healthy controls were tested by ELISA for their antibody titres against the two major phenolic glycolipids (PGLs) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, PGL-tbO (a 1:3 mixture of PGL-tb1 and its analogue whose phthiocerol moiety is phenolphthiotriol A) and PGL-tbK. Both PGL-tbs were shown to be specific to M. tuberculosis, and the profiles of serum anti-PGL-tbK titres revealed that PGL-tbK, like PGL-tb1, was fairly widely distributed among strains of M. tuberculosis. Even when these two PGL-tbs were used, however, the rate of ELISA-positives was not very high among TB patients, which is probably explained by the nature of the disease. Moreover, a considerable number of sera from healthy controls, especially from younger age groups, had high anti-PGL-tb titres, which implies that environmental exposure to M. tuberculosis is much higher than has been estimated from the actual TB cases. The ELISA system using these species-specific PGL-tb antigens may be useful for the survey of TB infection, since it gives more direct information on TB infection than the PPD skin test.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacology, Tokyo College of Pharmacy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawajiri
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niinuma
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kudoh
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Minnikin
mesh_terms: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D000917:Antibody Formation; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000032:analysis; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012016:Reference Values; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D006017:Glycolipids; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M