SEROLOGICAL SURVEY OF LEPROSY AND CONTROL SUBJECTS BY A MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY-BASED IMMUNOASSAY

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 53  (1) , 33-38
Abstract
A serological antibody competition test (SACT) using a murine anti-Mycobacterium leprae-specific monoclonal antibody (ML04) was evaluated in 96 untreated leprosy patients and 128 control subjects. The test is based on the competitive inhibition by antibodies from human test sera of the binding of the specific 125I-ML04 murine monoclonal antibody to M. leprae soluble antigen-coated microtiter plates. Along the spectrum of the disease, SACT positivity was observed in 100% of LL-BL [lepromatous-borderline lepromatous), 87.5% of BB (borderline) and 46.7% of the TT-BT (tuberculoid-borderline tuberculoid) groups of patients. Of apparently healthy household family contacts of multibacillary leprosy cases, 46.4% were also antibody positive. Sera from 15 contacts of paucibacillary leprosy cases and from 85 various nonleprosy subjects (tuberculosis, autoimmune disease, cancer and healthy) were all found to be negative. These results satisfy the requirements of a leprosy-specific serodiagnostic test. The striking increase of antibody titer in all of the LL/BL patients indicates of potential prognostic utility of this test for the lepromatous shift of the disease. The observed positivity in a fraction of healthy leprosy contacts still requires prospective evaluation of disease incidence in a larger test sample.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: