Analysis of antigenic specificities of Paragonimus westermani developmental stages using immunoblot technique

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Abstract
Serodiagnosis of parasitic infections is widely used, since parasites or their eggs are not always detected by ordinary methods. The sensitive tests such as ELISA are highly dependent on the purity of antigens used. To solve this problem, many workers have tried to find species-specific components of antigens. The present study was performed to determine the antigenic profile of crude saline extracts of 3, 5, 8 and 12-week old P. westermani worms, which were collected from experimentally infected cats, based on SDS-PAGE and immunoblot technique. The results were as follows: 1. The SDS-PAGE showed at least 30 protein bands ranging from 229 kDa to 10 kDa molecular weight. The protein components of P. westermani changed chronologically during its developmental period. The 229 kDa band was recognized only in 12-week old worms (SEP12). 2. Analysis by ELISA showed a significant increase in antibody levels at 3 weeks in infected cats using crude saline extract antigens (SEP3, SEP5, SEP8, SEP12). 3. By EITB using SEP3 and SEP5, infected cats recognized major protein bands with molecular weight of 60, 35, 28, 25 or 21 kDa at 3-12 weeks of infection, and 3 additional antigens, 19, 13 and 10 kDa, were detected at 8-12 weeks of infections. 4. Using SEP8, 5 antigens, 91, 85, 31, 25 and 21 kDa, were consistently detected by all infected sera tested. In addition, 3 antigens of 19, 13 and 10 kDa were detected at 8-12 weeks of infection.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)