ABSTRACT
A new recombinant protein (NIE) for immunodiagnosis of human Strongyloides infection has 13% to 18% amino acid identity with antigen 5 insect venom allergen, but the C-terminal segment of NIE showed highest identity with Ves v 5 (yellow jacket) and Pol a 5 (paper wasp). A rabbit polyclonal anti-NIE antibody identified a single band of NIE antigen as well as bands of Pol a 5 and Ves v 5 antigens, and mouse anti-Pol a 5 and anti-Ves v 5 sera reacted with recombinant NIE antigen by Western blot. A cyanogen bromide-digested C-terminal fragment of NIE was reactive with mouse anti-Ves v 5 and Pol a 5 antibodies as well as with rabbit anti-NIE serum. Although IgE and IgG antibodies from pooled sera from Strongyloides-infected patients reacted with Pol a 5 and Ves v 5 recombinant antigens on immunoblots, neither antigen inhibited human IgG reaction with NIE antigen in a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
Subject(s)
Allergens/immunology , Antigens, Helminth/chemistry , Antigens, Helminth/immunology , Epitopes/chemistry , Strongyloides stercoralis/immunology , Allergens/chemistry , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Cross Reactions , Insecta , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Molecular Sequence Data , Rabbits , Recombinant Proteins , Sequence Homology, Amino AcidABSTRACT
Due to the process of internal autoinfection, even chronic asymptomatic infections with Strongyloides stercoralis have the potential to become severe disseminated disease with fatal outcome. Intermittent and scanty larval excretion makes parasitologic diagnosis difficult. Serodiagnosis is helpful, but antigen preparation from infective larvae requires access to patients or immunosuppressed experimental animals. For these reasons, attention has turned to recombinant antigens for immunodiagnosis. A 31-kDa candidate antigen (NIE) derived from an L3 cDNA library is described in this report. Multiple alignment of the deduced amino acid sequence of NIE showed approximately 12-18% identity with various other organisms, including 17.9% of Asp1 of Ancylostoma caninum, 12.6% of Hemonchus contortus, and 17.6% of insect venom allergen 5 of yellow jacket. By ELISA, antibodies to the purified recombinant NIE antigen were demonstrated in 87.5% of 48 sera from strongyloides-infected patients and in only 6.5% of sera from presumed normal controls. Immunoreactivity of purified NIE antigen with parasite-specific IgE from sera of strongyloides-infected patients indicated its potential use as an immediate sensitivity skin test antigen. This application of the NIE antigen was supported by its capacity to trigger release of histamine upon in vitro exposure to blood from strongyloides-infected patients and its failure to produce histamine release from blood of normal controls.
