title: Distribution of IgG subclasses in antimonial unresponsive Indian kala-azar patients.
abstract: Sodium antimony gluconate (SAG) is the mainstay of treatment for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or kala-azar. In view of the increasing incidence of refractoriness to SAG in India, we compared the levels of parasite-specific IgG and IgG subclasses in 20 longitudinally followed up kala-azar patients. In both SAG-responsive (n = 10) and unresponsive patients (n = 10), the levels of total IgG, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4 were increased, the rank order being IgG1 > IgG2 > IgG3 = IgG4. Following treatment, a significant decrease in total IgG and the four subclasses occurred in the SAG-responsive group, whereas in the SAG-unresponsive group these levels were unchanged or slightly increased. Therefore, monitoring of IgG1 and IgG2 levels in Indian kala-azar patients is a good serologic alternative to monitoring the disease status.
authors.affiliation: Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and Department of Tropical Medicine, School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bannerjee
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pramanik
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Guha
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Goswami
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mandal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification; D007194:India; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000276:immunology*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000276:immunology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D007074:Immunoglobulin G