72 research outputs found
Anti-anisakis igE seroprevalence in the healthy Croatian coastal population and associated risk factors
The main objective of the study was to determine the degree of sensitization to Anisakis spp. antigens in healthy coastal population of Dalmatia given the high thermally unprocessed fish intake rate present in this area, suggested as a significant risk factor for anisakiasis. We performed a monocenter, cross-sectional pilot study stratified by geographic area of residence, conducted at the County secondary healthcare provider Medicine-biochemical Laboratory in Split (Croatia), from November 2010 till December 2011, on 500 unpaid volunteer subjects undergoing routine blood analysis
and belonging to the south coast of the Adriatic SeaThe study has been funded by basic grants of Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, grant number 001-0000000-3633, granted to IMS
Usefulness of ELISA Methods for Assessing LPS Interactions with Proteins and Peptides
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the major constituent of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, can trigger severe inflammatory responses during bacterial infections, possibly leading to septic shock. One approach to combatting endotoxic shock is to neutralize the most conserved part and major mediator of LPS activity (lipid A) with LPS-binding proteins or peptides. Although several available assays evaluate the biological activity of these molecules on LPS (e.g. inhibition of LPS-induced TNF-α production in macrophages), the development of simple and cost-effective methods that would enable preliminary screening of large numbers of potential candidate molecules is of great interest. Moreover, it would be also desirable that such methods could provide information about the possible biological relevance of the interactions between proteins and LPS, which may enhance or neutralize LPS-induced inflammatory responses. In this study, we designed and evaluated different types of ELISA that could be used to study possible interactions between LPS and any protein or peptide. We also analysed the usefulness and limitations of the different ELISAs. Specifically, we tested the capacity of several proteins and peptides to bind FITC-labeled LPSs from Escherichia coli serotypes O111:B4 and O55:B5 in an indirect ELISA and in two competitive ELISAs including casein hydrolysate (hCAS) and biotinylated polymyxin B (captured by deglycosylated avidin; PMX) as LPS-binding agents in the solid phase. We also examined the influence of pH, detergents and different blocking agents on LPS binding. Our results showed that the competitive hCAS-ELISA performed under mildly acidic conditions can be used as a general method for studying LPS interactions, while the more restrictive PMX-ELISA may help to identify proteins/peptides that are likely to have neutralizing properties in vitro or in vivoThis work was funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, Grant AGL2011-30563-C03; Xunta de Galicia, Spain, Grant GPC2014/058; and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER). VMS holds a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Programa de Formación del Profesorado Universitario) and RAOM is recipient of a fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de EconomÃa y Competitividad (Programa de Formación de Personal Investigador). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscriptS
Field evaluation of the enhanced MM3-COPRO ELISA test for the diagnosis of Fasciola hepatica infection in sheep
Fasciolosis is a severe zoonosis responsible for major economic losses in livestock. The enhanced MM3-COPRO test (eMM3-COPRO) and the commercial version BIO K 201 (Bio-X Diagnostics, Rochefort, Belgium) are widely used as immunodiagnostic tools for the specific detection of coproantigens released by Fasciola during the late prepatent and patent stages of infection. However, performance of the eMM3-COPRO has never been evaluated under field conditions. To address this gap, a large number of ovine faecal samples, collected in a region where fasciolosis is endemic (Galicia, NW Spain), were analyzed. Two groups of sheep flocks were selected according to the Fasciola infection status: ‘Fasciola-free’ and ‘Fasciola-infected’ flocks. ‘Fasciola-free’ flocks were seronegative flocks with no history of fasciolosis detected by either coproscopy or necropsy in the last 5 years. Faecal samples from these sheep were used to calculate a cut-off value for infection (OD = 0.021). The cut-off was calculated using a bootstrap resampling method that enables estimation of the sampling distribution of the statistical parameters without making assumptions about the underlying data distribution. ‘Fasciola-infected’ flocks were characterized by high seroprevalence, a history of fasciolosis and periodical treatment with flukicides. Samples from these flocks were used to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of the eMM3-COPRO relative to coproscopy, which although limited by poor sensitivity is the only reference test available for diagnosing fasciolosis in vivo. To overcome this limitation, all animals classified positive by eMM3-COPRO were treated with triclabendazole and then retested. The eMM3-COPRO displayed higher sensitivity than coproscopy, as it detected coproantigens in all samples with positive coproscopy and in 12% of samples with negative coproscopy. The test also proved highly specific as coproantigens disappeared after the treatment. The eMM3-COPRO was less time consuming than coproscopy, particularly when the procedure involved numerous samples, and showed promise as a tool for monitoring flukicide efficacyS
Rapid enhanced MM3-COPRO ELISA for detection of fasciola coproantigens
ELISA-based methods of detecting Fasciola cathepsins in feces are powerful techniques
for diagnosing infections by F. hepatica and F. gigantica. In the last decade, the in-house
MM3-COPRO ELISA and its commercial version BIO K 201 (BIO X Diagnostics, Belgium)
have been recognized as useful tools for detecting early infections by such trematodes and
for monitoring the efficacy of anthelmintic treatments in human and animal species, as they
provide some advantages over classic fecal egg counts. However, the sensitivity of MM3-
COPRO ELISA can sometimes be compromised by the high variability in the concentration
of cathepsins in fecal samples throughout the biological cycle of Fasciola (mainly in cattle)
and by differences in the between-batch performance of peroxidase-labeled anti-mouse
IgG polyclonal antibodies. To prevent such problems, we investigated whether the incorporation of a commercial streptavidin-polymerized horseradish peroxidase conjugate, in order
to reveal bound biotinylated monoclonal antibody MM3, can improve the sensitivity of the
MM3-COPRO ELISA. We observed that inclusion of this reagent shifted the previous detection limit of the assay from 0.6 ng/mL to 150 pg/mL and that the modified test is able to identify infection in cows harboring only one fluke. Moreover, we demonstrated that maximal OD
values can be achieved with short incubations (30 min each step) at RT with shaking, rather
than standard incubations, which significantly accelerates the diagnostic procedure. Finally,
we did not find a significant correlation between coproantigen concentration and parasite
burden in cattle, which may be due to the low parasite burden (1–10 adult flukes) of the animals used in the present study. As the usefulness of the classic MM3-COPRO test for
detecting animal and human infections has already been demonstrated, it is expected that
the improvements reported in this study will add new insights into the diagnosis and control
of fasciolosisWe have previously reported how the combined use of mAb MM3 with polyclonal antibodies obtained from rabbit immunized with Fasciola hepatica excretory-antigens led to the development of the in-house MM3-COPRO ELISA and its commercial
version BIO K 201 (BIO X Diagnostics, Belgium), which are widely used to detect human
and animal infections caused by F. hepatica. After more than a decade in use, both tests
have proven to be useful tools for specifically detecting Fasciola infections, although it has
also been found that: i) the conditions of use of the commercial test in some field studies
did not enable the sensitivity obtained with the in-house test to be reached, and ii) the
batches of the secondary reagent (peroxidase-labeled anti-mouse antibodies) currently
available for use in the in-house test do not perform the same as previous batches. To
solve these problems, we provide data showing that the incorporation of an enhancement
system consisting of streptavidin-polymerized horseradish peroxidase conjugate greatly
improved the sensitivity of the MM3-COPRO ELISA and enabled reduction of the incubation time. These modifications enabled the detectability of the assay to be 150 pg/mL, thus
enabling detection of infection in animals harboring only one flukeThis work was funded by Ministerio de
Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, Grants AGL2011-
30563-C02/C03; Xunta de Galicia, Spain, Grant
GPC2014/058; and the European Fund for Regional
Development (FEDER). VMS holds a predoctoral
fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación,
Cultura y Deporte (Programa de Formación del
Profesorado Universitario, AP2010-5808) and RAOM
is recipient of a fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio
de EconomÃa y Competitividad (Programa de
Formación de Personal Investigador, BES-2012-
060270)S
Fasciola spp: Mapping of the MF6 epitope and antigenic analysis of the MF6p/HDM family of heme-binding proteins
MF6p/FhHDM-1 is a small cationic heme-binding protein which is recognized by the monoclonal antibody (mAb) MF6, and abundantly present in parenchymal cells and secreted antigens of Fasciola hepatica. Orthologs of this protein (MF6p/HDMs) also exist in other causal agents of important foodborne trematodiasis, such as Clonorchis sinensis, Opisthorchis viverrini and Paragonimus westermani. Considering that MF6p/FhHDM-1 is relevant for heme homeostasis in Fasciola and was reported to have immunomodulatory properties, this protein is expected to be a useful target for vaccination. Thus, in this study we mapped the epitope recognized by mAb MF6 and evaluated its antigenicity in sheep. The sequence of the MF6p/FhHDM-1 ortholog from F. gigantica (MF6p/FgHDM-1) was also reported. By means of ELISA inhibitions with overlapping synthetic peptides, we determined that the epitope recognized by mAb MF6 is located within the C-terminal moiety of MF6p/FhHDM-1, which is the most conserved region of MF6p/HDMs. By immunoblotting analysis of parasite extracts and ELISA inhibitions with synthetic peptides we also determined that mAb MF6 reacted with the same intensity with F. hepatica and F. gigantica, and in decreasing order of intensity with C. sinensis, O.viverrini and P. westermani orthologs. On the contrary, mAb MF6 showed no reactivity against Dicrocoelium dendriticum and Schistosoma mansoni. The study of the recognition of peptides covering different regions of MF6p/FhHDM-1 by sera from immunized sheep revealed that the C-terminal moiety is the most antigenic, thus being of potential interest for vaccination. We also demonstrated that the production of antibodies to MF6p/FhHDM-1 in sheep infected by F. hepatica occurs relatively early and follows the same pattern as those produced against L-cathepsins.This work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain (Grants AGL2011-30563-C03-01, AGL2011-30563-C03-02 and AGL2011-30563-C03-03); Xunta de Galicia, Spain (Grants GPC 2014/058 and ED431B 2017/18); Network of Biomedical Research on Tropical Diseases (RICET), Spain (Grant RD12/0018/0013) and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER). VMS holds a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Programa de Formación del Profesorado Universitario). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.S
Analysis of Ani s 7 and Ani s 1 allergens as biomarkers of sensitization and allergy severity in human anisakiasis
The high frequency of infection by Anisakis simplex (A. simplex) has led to an increase in IgE sensitization, turning allergy to this parasite a relevant contemporary health problem. Improving the lack of conventional diagnosis test specificity is crucial to better understand these clinical scenarios. Specific IgE (sIgE) to A. simplex extract by ImmunoCAP (Anisakis-sIgE) was determined in sera from 403 blood donors (BD) from Cantabria (North of Spain) of which 51 subjects resulted sensitized. Among these latter, 47 were asymptomatic (sABD). The values of total IgE, prick-test, Anisakis-sIgE, and sIgE to Ani s 1 (anti-rAni s 1) and Ani s 7 (anti-rAni s 7) were compared between 46 sABD and 49 A. simplex allergic patients. The IgE seroprevalence by ImmunoCAP among BD was 12.65%. Allergic patients and sABD showed significant differences in all serum biomarkers evaluated. The area under the curve was assessed for Anisakis-sIgE (0.892), sIgE-rAni s 1 (0.672) and sIgE-rAni s 7 (0.668). After a severe reaction, significantly higher levels of Anisakis-sIgE and sIgE anti-rAni s 1 were detected. Determinations of sIgE by ImmunoCAP, Ani s 1 and Ani s 7 presented different sensitization patterns between allergic and asymptomatic individuals. The Ani s 1 allergen arises as a possible biomarker to detect patients at risk of suffering severe allergic reactions
ANISERP: a new serpin from the parasite Anisakis simplex
Background: Serine proteinase inhibitors (serpins) finely regulate serine proteinase activity via a suicide substrate-like
inhibitory mechanism. In parasitic nematodes, some serpins interact with host physiological processes; however, little is
known about these essential molecules in Anisakis. This article reports the gene sequencing, cloning, expression and
preliminary biochemical and bioinformatically-based structural characterization of a new Anisakis serpin (ANISERP).
Methods: The full AniSerp gene was cloned by specific RACE-PCR after screening an Anisakis simplex (L3) cDNA library.
For biochemical assays, the AniSerp gene was subcloned into both prokaryotic and eukaryotic vectors, and the
recombinant proteins were purified. The inhibitory properties of the proteins were tested in classical biochemical assays
using human serine peptidases and AMC substrates. Immunolocalization of ANISERP, theoretical structural analysis and
bioinformatically-based structural modelling of the ANISERP protein were also conducted.
Results: The AniSerp gene was found to have 1194 nucleotides, coding for a protein of 397 amino acid residues plus a
putative N-terminal signal peptide. It showed significant similarity to other nematode, arthropod and mammalian
serpins. The recombinant ANISERP expressed in the prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems inhibited the human
serine proteases thrombin, trypsin and cathepsin G in a concentration-dependent manner. No inhibitory activity
against Factor Xa, Factor XIa, Factor XIIa, elastase, plasmin or chymotrypsin was observed. ANISERP also acted on
the cysteine protease cathepsin L. ANISERP was mainly localized in the nematode pseudocoelomic fluid, somatic
muscle cell bodies and intestinal cells. The findings of molecular dynamics studies suggest that ANISERP inhibits
thrombin via a suicide substrate-like inhibitory mechanism, similar to the mechanism of action of mammalian
coagulation inhibitors. In contrast to findings concerning human antithrombin III, heparin had no effect on ANISERP
anticoagulant inhibitory activity.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that ANISERP is an internal Anisakis regulatory serpin and that the inhibitory activity
against thrombin depends on a suicide substrate-like inhibitory mechanism, similar to that described for human
antithrombin (AT)-III. The fact that heparin does not modulate the anticoagulant activity of ANISERP might be
explained by the absence in the latter of five of the six positively charged residues usually seen at the AT-III-heparin
binding site.We thank Biomol-Informatics SL (http://www.biomol-informatics.com/) for
bioinformatic consultation. We also thank Juan Francisco Alcaide and Julia
Medrano for their invaluable help in the ANISERP patenting process. We thank
Dr Raúl Iglesias (Laboratorio de ParasitologÃa, Facultad de BiologÃa, Universidad
de Vigo) for his helpful comments on the interpretation of the IHQ studies
In-plate recapturing of a dual-tagged recombinant Fasciola antigen (FhLAP) by a monoclonal antibody (US9) prevents non-specific binding in ELISA
Recombinant proteins expressed in E. coli are frequently purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). By means of this technique, tagged proteins containing a polyhistidine sequence can be obtained up to 95% pure in a single step, but some host proteins also bind with great affinity to metal ions and contaminate the sample. A way to overcome this problem is to include a second tag that is recognized by a preexistent monoclonal antibody (mAb) in the gene encoding the target protein, allowing further purification. With this strategy, the recombinant protein can be directly used as target in capture ELISA using plates sensitized with the corresponding mAb. As a proof of concept, in this study we engineered a Trichinella-derived tag (MTFSVPIS, recognized by mAb US9) into a His-tagged recombinant Fasciola antigen (rFhLAP) to make a new chimeric recombinant protein (rUS9-FhLAP), and tested its specificity in capture and indirect ELISAs with sera from sheep and cattle. FhLAP was selected since it was previously reported to be immunogenic in ruminants and is expressed in soluble form in E. coli, which anticipates a higher contamination by host proteins than proteins expressed in inclusion bodies. Our results showed that a large number of sera from non-infected ruminants (mainly cattle) reacted in indirect ELISA with rUS9-FhLAP after single-step purification by IMAC, but that this reactivity disappeared testing the same antigen in capture ELISA with mAb US9. These results demonstrate that the 6XHis and US9 tags can be combined when double purification of recombinant proteins is required.This work was supported by: Ministerio de EconomÃa y Competitividad (Spain) [grant number AGL2011-30563-C03 and AGL2014-57125R], Ministerio de EconomÃa, Industria y Competitividad (INIA, Spain) [grants numbers RTA2017-00010-C02-01 and RTA2017-00010-C02-02] and the ConsellerÃa de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria (Xunta de Galicia, Spain) [grant number ED431B 2017/18]. RAOM holds a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de EconomÃa y Competitividad (Programa de Formación de Personal Investigador). VMS is supported by a contract under the grant ED431B 2017/18. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.S
Development and Evaluation of a New Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Serodiagnosis of Human Fasciolosis
Fasciolosis is an important plant-borne trematode zoonosis. This disease is of both clinical and veterinary relevance and, according to the WHO, is considered a re-emerging disease that is spreading around the world. Fasciolosis has a serious impact on health because of the large size of the parasite and the effects of the parasite in down-regulating the host immune response. Human fasciolosis can be distinguished by an acute phase, in which the parasite migrates through different tissues, and a chronic phase in which it invades the bile ducts. Here we describe the development of a rapid, simple and inexpensive immunochromatographic diagnostic method, based on the use of a recombinant cathepsin L1 protein, which performs better than other more complex indirect methods, providing similar specificity and higher sensitivity. The simplicity of the method represents a great advantage for the intervention systems applied in different endemic areas by WHO, such as passive case finding (e.g. Vietnam) and selective treatment (e.g. Egypt). Because of its characteristics, the system can be applied to both phases of the disease, and in holo, meso and hyperendemic areas where point-of-care testing is required
Interactions of amphipathic α-helical MEG proteins from Schistosoma mansoni with membranes
Micro Exon Gene (MEG) proteins are thought to play major roles in the infection and survival of parasitic Schistosoma mansoni worms in host organisms. Here, the physical chemical properties of two small MEG proteins found in the genome of S. mansoni, named MEG-24 and MEG-27, were examined by a combination of biophysical techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry, tensiometry, circular dichroism, fluorescence, and electron spin resonance spectroscopies. The proteins are surface active and structurally arranged as cationic amphipathic α-helices that can associate with lipid membranes and cause their disruption. Upon adsorption to lipid membranes, MEG-27 strongly affects the fluidity of erythrocyte ghost membranes, whereas MEG-24 forms pores in erythrocytes without modifying the ghost membrane fluidity. Whole–mount in situ hybridization experiments indicates that MEG-27 and MEG-24 transcripts are located in the parasite esophagus and subtegumental cells, respectively, suggesting a relevant role of these proteins in the host-parasite interface. Taken together, these characteristics lead us to propose that these MEG proteins may interact with host cell membranes and potentially modulate the immune process using a similar mechanism as that described for α-helical membrane–active peptides
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