ABSTRACT
Mycoplasma hominis surface structures involved in human immune response and in the pathogenesis of this bacterial infection are inadequately defined. Attempts have been made to identify M. hominis surface proteins, to determine the antigenicity of these polypeptides, and to examine antigens which could lead to the development of species-specific diagnostic tests. By means of Western blotting, using a pool of sera from patients with culturally proven vaginal infection, most antigens recognized were surface exposed. Among these proteins, antigens of molecular weights between 102 and 116 kD were most consistently revealed. These polypeptides were recovered by electroelution and assayed in an IgG-ELISA. The electroeluted antigen specificity was examined by ELISA and immunoblotting with different mycoplasma species. Electroeluted proteins may be effective and specific for establishing a reliable diagnosis test.
Subject(s)
Antigens, Bacterial/immunology , Bacterial Proteins/immunology , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Mycoplasma/immunology , Antigens, Surface/immunology , Blotting, Western , Cross Reactions , Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel , Humans , Immune Sera/immunology , Membrane Proteins/immunology , Species SpecificityABSTRACT
An ELISA method using human CMV major polypeptide (66 kD) purified by electroelution was used to detect IgG and IgM antibodies and was compared with a conventional ELISA using the whole virus. The ELISA-66 kD showed a good sensitivity (98.2%) and had a better specificity than the ELISA-whole virus (97.5% versus 80.3%). Cross reactions observed, particularly with sera containing anti-EBV antibodies, were ruled out.
