title: Generation and selection of anti-flagellin monoclonal antibodies useful for serotyping Salmonella enterica.
abstract: In developing countries, bacterial acute gastroenteritis continues to be an important cause of morbidity and mortality among young children. Salmonellosis constitutes a major cause of infectious enteritis worldwide, most of them associated to the consumption of contaminated food products. Traditionally, Salmonella has been classified in serovars based on varieties of O and H surface antigens. In the present work we generated and characterized a panel of anti-flagellin monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) in order to select antibodies useful for detecting the H surface antigen. Four different MAbs were obtained by somatic hybridization of splenocytes. We found two MAbs that recognised regions of flagellin conserved among different Salmonella serovars. Other two MAbs recognised structures restricted to Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium, being one of them suitable for agglutination tests. Using a diverse panel of S. enterica serovars with different H antigen varieties we confirmed that this MAb agglutinates specifically S. Typhimurium (antigenic formula: 4,12:i:1,2) or other serovars expressing flagellar factor i. In conclusion, we generated a valuable immunochemical tool to be used in simple assays for serotyping of epidemiologically relevant strains. The capacity to characterize specific strains and determine the primary sources of Salmonella contamination generate valuable information of the epidemiology of this microorganism, contributing to the improvement of public health.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Investigaciones del Sistema Inmune (LISIN), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, CP1900 Argentina.
authors.forename: Yanina
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hiriart
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Cátedra de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Serradell
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bacteriología y Virología, Instituto de Higiene, Centro Nacional de Salmonella, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Araci
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Cátedra de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sampaolesi
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Investigaciones del Sistema Inmune (LISIN), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, CP1900 Argentina.
authors.forename: Dolores Gonzalez
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Maciel
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Desarrollo Biotecnológico, Instituto de Higiene, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Jose Alejandro
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Chabalgoity
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Desarrollo Biotecnológico, Instituto de Higiene, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Lucía
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bacteriología y Virología, Instituto de Higiene, Centro Nacional de Salmonella, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Algorta
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Investigaciones del Sistema Inmune (LISIN), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, CP1900 Argentina.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rumbo
keywords: Flagellin; Monoclonal antibodies; Salmonella; Serotyping