Department of Parasitology-Mycology, Institut Pasteur de Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
Recombinant Protein Platform, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
Exp Parasitol. 2024 Aug-Sep;263-264:108803. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2024.108803. Epub 2024 Jul 14.
Human cysticercosis caused by Taenia soliun (T. soliun) is endemic in certain areas of Latin America, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is mainly diagnosed by neuroimaging, which, in most cases, is unavailable in endemic areas. Due to their high sensitivity and specificity, serological tests such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot (WB) based on the glycosylated fraction of the cyst CS50 are widely used for the detection of the anti-cysticercus IgG antibodies despite their significant cost and the need of cysticercus material. Given their cost-effectivess and simplicity, immunoassays based on recombinant proteins could provide new alternatives for human cysticercosis diagnosis: such tests would be aimed at screening those people living in remote areas who need further examination. To date, however, no test using recombinant antigens is commercially available. Herein, five recombinant proteins (R14, R18, R93.1, R914.1, and R915.2) were produced, three of which (R93.1, R914.1, and R915.2) were newly identified from the cyst fluid. Evaluation of the diagnostic performance of these recombinant antigens by ELISA was done using sera from 200 epileptic and non-epileptic individuals in comparison with the WB-CS50 as the reference serological method. Recombinant proteins-based ELISA showed a level of diagnostic performance that is inferior than the reference serological method, but similar to that of the native antigen ELISA for human cysticercosis (commonly used for screening). Further optimization of expression conditions is still needed in order to improve proteins solubility and enhance diagnostic performance for human cysticercosis detection. However, this preliminary evaluation of the recombinant antigens has shown their potential valuable use for screening cysticercosis in patients with epilepsy attending dispensaries in remote areas. Future studies should be conducted to evaluate our recombinant antigens in a large group of patients with different stages of NCC, and in correlation with imaging findings.
由猪带绦虫（T. soliun）引起的人类囊虫病在地中海地区、亚洲和撒哈拉以南非洲的某些地区流行。神经囊虫病（NCC）主要通过神经影像学诊断，但在流行地区，这种方法大多不可用。由于酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）和基于囊虫 CS50 糖基化部分的 Western blot（WB）等血清学检测具有较高的敏感性和特异性，尽管成本较高且需要囊虫材料，但仍广泛用于检测抗囊虫 IgG 抗体。鉴于其成本效益和简单性，基于重组蛋白的免疫分析可以为人类囊虫病诊断提供新的选择：这些测试将针对那些生活在偏远地区需要进一步检查的人。然而，迄今为止，尚无使用重组抗原的测试可商业化应用。在此，我们生产了 5 种重组蛋白（R14、R18、R93.1、R914.1 和 R915.2），其中 3 种（R93.1、R914.1 和 R915.2）是从囊液中新鉴定的。通过 ELISA 评估这些重组抗原的诊断性能，比较了 200 例癫痫和非癫痫患者的血清与 WB-CS50 作为参考血清学方法。重组蛋白 ELISA 的诊断性能水平低于参考血清学方法，但与用于筛查的人类囊虫病的天然抗原 ELISA 相似。为了提高对人类囊虫病检测的诊断性能，仍需要进一步优化表达条件，以提高蛋白质的溶解度。然而，对重组抗原的初步评估表明，它们具有用于筛选在偏远地区就诊的癫痫患者中囊虫病的潜在价值。未来的研究应在不同阶段的 NCC 患者和与影像学发现相关的情况下，对我们的重组抗原进行评估。
