title: Potential serodiagnostic markers for Q fever identified in Coxiella burnetii by immunoproteomic and protein microarray approaches.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Coxiella burnetii is the etiological agent of Q fever. The clinical diagnosis of Q fever is mainly based on several serological tests. These tests all need Coxiella organisms which are difficult and hazardous to culture and purify.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An immunoproteomic study of C. burnetii Xinqiao strain isolated in China was conducted with the sera from experimentally infected BALB/c mice and Q fever patients. Twenty of whole proteins of Xinqiao recognized by the infection sera were identified by mass spectrometry. Nineteen of the 20 proteins were successfully expressed in Escherichia coli and used to fabricate a microarray which was probed with Q fever patient sera. As a result, GroEL, YbgF, RplL, Mip, OmpH, Com1, and Dnak were recognized as major seroreactive antigens. The major seroreactive proteins were fabricated in a small microarray and further analyzed with the sera of patients with rickettsial spotted fever, Legionella pneumonia or streptococcal pneumonia. In this analysis, these proteins showed fewer cross-reactions with the tested sera.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that these 7 Coxiella proteins gave a modest sensitivity and specificity for recognizing of Q fever patient sera, suggesting that they are potential serodiagnostic markers for Q fever.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Dong-dia-jie, Beijing 100071, China.
authors.forename: Xiaolu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Xile
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bohai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Graves
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stenos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002681:China; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016997:Coxiella burnetii / Q000276:immunology*; D004926:Escherichia coli; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis*; D011778:Q Fever / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D015415:Biomarkers; D020543:Proteome