Use of an antigen-capture assay for characterisation of monoclonal antibodies to mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan.

Monoclonal antibodies directed to six separate antigen molecules of Mycobacterium leprae have been tested in an antigen-capture assay based on combined use of polyclonal ("capture") and monoclonal ("detector") antibody reagents. This approach provides a potentially versatile, sensitive and specific assay for detection and relative quantitation of M. leprae antigens. Characterisation of monoclonal antibodies to mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan (LAM-B) by the antigen-capture assay indicates that some of the antigenic determinants present on LAM-B from M. leprae may be either absent altogether or present at much lower concentrations on the corresponding LAM-B structure form M. tuberculosis.