Recombinant antigens for serodiagnosis of cysticercosis and echinococcosis

Diagnosis of cysticercosis/echinococcosis is primarily based on imaging techniques. These imaging techniques are sometimes limited by the small size of visualized lesions and atypical images, which are difficult to be distinguished from abscesses or neoplasms. Therefore, efforts have been directed toward identification and characterization of specific antigens of parasites for development of serodiagnostic method that can detect specific antibody. For cysticercosis, glycoproteins of 10–26 kDa in cyst fluid of Taenia solium have been widely accepted for serodiagnosis purpose. The glycoproteins consist of a very closely related family of 8-kDa proteins. We identified four genes (designated Ag1, Ag1V1, Ag2 and Ag2V1) encoding the 7- and 10-kDa polypeptides. Based on the antigenicities of these clones, Ag1V1 and Ag2 were chosen as ELISA antigens and the Ag1V1/Ag2 chimeric protein was expressed. The Ag1V1/Ag2 chimeric protein showed the similar sensitivity and specificity as the native glycoproteins. For alveolar echinococcosis, the 65-kDa protein of Echinococcus multilocularis protoscolices and Em18 has been considered as serodiagnostic antigens. The sensitivity and specificity of Em18 are very compatible to those of the recombinant 65-kDa protein. Recently, we demonstrated that Em18 was the proteolytic product of the 65-kDa protein following the action by cysteine proteinases. From the information of N-terminal amino acid sequences, molecular size and isoelectric point of Em18, recombinant Em18 (349K to 508K of the 65-kDa protein, RecEm18) was expressed and evaluated for serodiagnostic value. RecEm18 has the potential for use in the differential serodiagnosis of alveolar echinococcosis.