Microbiology and Parasitology Department, Federal University of S. Maria, Av. Roraima, 1000, S. Maria, RS, Brazil 97.105-900.
Parasitol Res. 2010 Feb;106(3):741-5. doi: 10.1007/s00436-009-1707-3.
In serodiagnosis of cystic echinococcosis (CE) by Echinococcus granulosus infection, antigen B (AgB) has been utilized worldwide. However, it is known that about 40% of sera with alveolar echinococcosis (AE) by Echinococcus multilocularis infection recognize AgB. Furthermore, cross-reaction against AgB was also reported in sera from polycystic echinococcosis (PE) patients with Echinococcus vogeli infection. These findings indicate that AgB is widely common to the genus Echinococcus. On the other hand, AgB has several subunits, which are composed of the smallest 8-kDa subunit. In this study, reactivities of patient sera with three kinds of Echinococcus infections (CE, PE, and AE) were compared simultaneously under the same condition against three subunits of AgB (8, 16, and 24 kDa). Many articles have referred the fundamental 8- kDa subunit as a diagnostic antigen for CE. However, the reactivity for the 8-kDa subunit of the CE patient was not so high (47.7%) in this study. Furthermore, there are many cases in which serum of patients with PE or AE also recognizes this subunit (66.7% in PE; 45.9% in AE). AgB is effective for the detection of the genus Echinococcus infections, but it does not have high species specificity. Therefore, we need to pay attention to cross-reaction in serodiagnosis of CE in areas where plural species coexist.
在细粒棘球蚴感染所致的包虫病（CE）的血清学诊断中，抗原 B（AgB）已在全球范围内得到应用。然而，已知约 40%的泡型包虫病（AE）由多房棘球绦虫感染的血清可识别 AgB。此外，在由细粒棘球绦虫感染所致的多囊性包虫病（PE）患者的血清中也报道了针对 AgB 的交叉反应。这些发现表明 AgB 广泛存在于细粒棘球绦虫属中。另一方面，AgB 具有几个亚单位，由最小的 8-kDa 亚单位组成。在这项研究中，在相同条件下同时比较了三种棘球蚴感染（CE、PE 和 AE）患者血清对 AgB 的三个亚单位（8、16 和 24 kDa）的反应性。许多文献将基本的 8-kDa 亚单位作为 CE 的诊断抗原。然而，在本研究中，CE 患者的 8-kDa 亚单位的反应性并不高（47.7%）。此外，PE 或 AE 患者的血清也识别该亚单位的情况很多（PE 中为 66.7%；AE 中为 45.9%）。AgB 可有效用于检测棘球蚴属感染，但它不具有高种特异性。因此，我们需要在多种物种共存的地区注意 CE 的血清学诊断中的交叉反应。
