Immunological characterization of various
Pseudomonas pseudomallei preparations was carried out by
SDS-PAGE and
Western blot using sera from infected
humans and from
patients with other
bacterial infections. Somatic (SOM) and partially purified
cell extracts (PCE) gave more complex
SDS-PAGE patterns M(r) ranged from 86 to 12.7 and 48 to 10 kDa, respectively. The
culture-filtrated
antigens (CF) from 3 different kinds of synthetic media consisted of fairly simple profiles with common bands M(r) of 40, 26 and 16 kDa. PCE and CF reacted specifically with infected
human sera; SOM did not. The components with M(r) of 40 kDa in CF reacted consistently with all infected sera but failed to react with sera infected with
Escherichia coli,
Enterobacter spp.,
Klebsiella pneumoniae,
Proteus mirabilis,
Salmonella spp.,
Staphylococcus aureus,
Streptococcus spp.,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. stutzeri. This
peptide was demonstrated to be a major component in CF thus suggesting its potential for development of immunodiagnostic
methods for
melioidosis.