Detection of Fasciola Antigen in Serum and Stool Samples

ABSTRACT

Fascioliasis as a zoonotic disease that affects humans is more important than previously thought especially in endemic areas .This work estimates immunodiagnosis of Fasciola by detecting both circulating and copro-antigens. Rabbit anti-cysteine protease was prepared and used for antigen capture and detection by sandwich EUSA. Fasciola antigen detection in sera of naturally infected animals revealed high sensitivity [87.75%] and specificity [94.38%]. Copro antigen detection in stool of naturally infected animals yielded 93.19% sensitivity and 96.62% specificity respectively. A pilot application of both assays was performed for a sample of subjects. The sandwich ELISA detected antigen in sera of Fasciola patients with 92.4% sensitivity and 94.7% specificity. The sandwich ELISA achieved high sensitivity [100%] and specificity [90.63%] for coproantigen detection. Detection of Fasciola antigen in stool could be introduced as cost effective, non invasive standard assay for the screen diagnosis of Fasciola in humans living in endemic areas. These assays may be promising for inimunodiagnosis of fascioliasis that could be complementary tool to parasitological examination