[An immunochemical study of the antigenic profile of cultured strains of Treponema pallidum]. / Immunokhimicheskoe izuchenie antigennogo profilia kul'tural'nykh shtammov blednoi treponemy.

Antigenic profile of T. pallidum culture strains was under study. To prove the presence of 'active' antigenic substances with antibodies in the blood sera of syphilitics, the authors have employed immunization with antigen preparation and reimmunization with antigen precipitate from syphilitics' blood sera. Crossed immunoelectrophoresis has detected up to 25 antigenic components in US-treated culture strains. Five of these contributed to the formation of the specific precipitate from syphilitics' blood sera pool.

[The use of immunoenzyme analysis for recording specific IgM antibodies in syphilis patients]. / Primenenie immunofermentnogo analiza dlia registratsii spetsificheskikh IgM-antitel u bol'nykh sifilisom.

Specific IgM antibodies were assayed in blood sera of 230 patients with various forms of syphilis and of 561 controls. Enzyme immunoassay (EIA) sensitivity has made up 95.8 percent for primary syphilis, 93.8 percent for secondary new, 78.3 percent for secondary recurrent, 35.4 percent for early latent, 37.5 percent for late latent, and 80 percent for unknown syphilis. False-positive reactions were recorded in 5.5 percent of cases and were as a rule seen in the sera from patients with diffuse diseases of connective tissue. IgM EIA has proved highly effective in testing the sera from patients with primary seronegative syphilis and from subjects who had sexual intercourse with patients suffering from contagious forms of syphilis.

[The protein-binding properties of Treponema]. / Izuchenie proteinsviazyvaiushchikh svoistv treponemy.

A new type of substances is described, related to T. pallidum cultural strain structure and interacting with human and animal blood serum proteins, named T-PBC. T-PBC were found to react with albumin, immunoglobulins G, M, and A, fibronectin, CIg component of human blood serum complement, goat and bovine blood serum immunoglobulins. When injected to animals, T-PBC induced production of specific antibodies identifying 4 components in T-PBC, 2 of these components being resistant to heating at 100 degrees C for 5 min. All these components could be stained with protein stains.