title: Evaluation of major membrane protein-II as a tool for serodiagnosis of leprosy.
abstract: As serodiagnosis is the easiest way of diagnosing a disease, the utility of Mycobacterium leprae-derived major membrane protein-II (MMP-II), one of the immuno-dominant antigens, in the serodiagnosis of leprosy was examined. The percent positivity by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for anti-MMP-II antibody was 82.4% for multi-bacillary leprosy, and the specificity of the test was 90.1%. For pauci-bacillary leprosy where cell-mediated immunity predominates, 39.0% showed positive results. These percentage values were significantly higher than these values obtained for existing phenolic glycolipid-I based methods, suggesting that MMP-II antibody detection would facilitate the diagnosis of leprosy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Leprosy Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan. yumi@nih.go.jp
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Tetsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kai
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukutomi
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nomaguchi
authors.forename: Chiyoji
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Seigo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitada
authors.forename: Ryoji
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maekura
authors.forename: Ikuya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yano
authors.forename: Norihisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makino
mesh_terms: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007918:Leprosy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000276:immunology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C500901:major membrane protein II, Mycobacterium leprae