It has become increasingly evident that in intestinal schistosomiasis,
parasitological techniques frequently fail to reveal low-intensity
infections. This happens in countries with a low level of transmission
as Venezuela, where approximately 80% of individuals eliminate less
than 100 eggs/g of feces. In this and other countries as China, control
programs have incorporated serology as a way of improving diagnosis and
treatment of the affected populations. Several serologic tests such as
the circumoval precipitin test, indirect immunofluorescent assay, and
immunoenzymatic assays with crude antigens, have been preferred among
the antibody detection methods. However, none of them fulfill all of
the following requirements: low cost, simplicity, high specificity and
sensitivity, and correlation with active infection and worm burden. As
alternative, the detection of circulating antigens such as the
circulating cathodic antigen and the circulating anodic antigen by
monoclonal antibodies have shown promising results only in areas of
moderate and high transmission of schistosomiasis. Therefore,
alternative methods need to be developed and synthetic peptides, either
for the detection of antibodies or antigens, could be one of the
approaches