ABSTRACT
Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a disease caused by the Paracoccidioides genus, which includes P. brasiliensis and the new phylogenetic species P. lutzii. Resistance to this infection has been correlated with a Th1 pattern of cellular immune response, while susceptibility is correlated to an intense humoral immune response with an increase in IgE levels. Serum levels of IgE and IgG anti-gp70 and anti-exoantigen in chronic PCM were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results showed a higher gp70 concentration in somatic antigen (SA) than in cell-free antigen (CFA) preparation and significantly higher levels of IgE and IgG anti-gp70 in chronic PCM patients' serum (n = 12) than in normal human serum (n = 12) (p < 0.05). Pearson's correlation analysis showed a strong correlation between IgG and IgE anti-gp70 (r = 0.8424). Additionally, IgE purified from a pool of acute and chronic PCM patient's serum was analyzed by immunoblotting. The patients with the acute form of the disease showed strong bands for gp43 and gp70 in SA but only for gp43 in CFA. In patients with the chronic form, solely the gp43 band was observed. In conclusion, we found that SA is a better source of gp70 than CFA is, and chronic PCM patients show high levels of IgE anti-gp70. This finding suggests that the Th2 immune response is potentially induced by gp70 in PCM disease, which calls for further study.
