Mycoplasma pneumoniae protein involved in the antibody response in human infection.

Antigen from purified Mycoplasma pneumoniae organisms treated with Tween-80-ether was used in a solid phase enzyme immunoassay and compared with the conventional lipid containing complement fixation antigen for measuring antibodies in sera from patients with aseptic or bacterial meningitis or with apparent M pneumoniae infection. In immunoblotting of the enzyme immunoassay antigen, enzyme immunoassay positive sera detected a polypeptide at Mr = 180.000-200.000, while enzyme immunoassay negative sera whether positive or negative in the complement fixation test did not. These results indicate that the enzyme immunoassay antigen containing the high molecular weight polypeptide can be used to measure M pneumoniae antibodies more specifically than the conventional lipid containing complement fixation antigen.