title: Diagnostic epitope variability within Taenia solium 8 kDa antigen family: implications for cysticercosis immunodetection.
abstract: To study diagnostic epitopes within the Taenia solium 8 kDa antigen family, six overlapping synthetic peptides from an 8 kDa family member (Ts8B2) were synthesized and evaluated by ELISA and MABA with sera from patients with neurocysticercosis (NCC), from infected pigs and from rabbits immunized with recombinant Ts8B2 protein. The pre-immune rabbit sera and the Ts8B2 recombinant protein served as negative and positive controls, respectively. A similar analysis was done with the already described antigenic peptides from another member of the 8 kDa family, highly similar to Ts8B2, the CyDA antigen. Surprisingly, neither the Ts8B2 peptides nor the CyDA peptides were recognized by infected human and porcine sera. However, the entire Ts8B2 recombinant, as well as amino and carboxy-terminal halves were recognized by the positive serum samples. The observed lack of recognition of linear Ts8B2 peptides suggests that the principal serological response to the Ts8B2 family is focused on conformational epitopes in contrast to the previously observed antigenicity of the CyDA peptides. This differential antigenicity of 8 kDa family peptides could be related with parasite antigenic variability. The fact that rabbits experimentally immunized with Ts8B2 did make anti-peptide antibodies to peptides Ts8B2-6 and CyDA-6, located in the carboxy-terminal region demonstrated that the Ts8B2 peptides are not intrinsically non-immunogenic.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad de Carabobo Sede Aragua, Maracay, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.forename: Jipsy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milano
authors.forename: Suhei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Rosamelia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: La Rosa
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lares
authors.forename: Luís Miguel
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: María Milagros
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Cortéz
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dávila
authors.forename: Leslie J S
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: R Michael E
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Parkhouse
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gárate
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D000947:Antigens, Helminth / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003551:Cysticercosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology; D003552:Cysticercus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D000939:Epitopes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D011817:Rabbits; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013552:Swine; D041201:Taenia solium / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D000947:Antigens, Helminth; D000939:Epitopes; D011994:Recombinant Proteins