Humoral immune response of children with chronic schistosomiasis. Isotype recognition of adult worm antigens.

In areas of low transmission of schistosomiasis, the evaluation of the success of control depends on reliable diagnostic tests. Under such conditions, some of the serological tests better estimate the real prevalence of this parasitosis than the classical stool examinations. On the search of highly sensitive and specific antigenic fractions for use in serological tests, an immunoblot technique with a luminescent substrate was used in order to evaluate, under dissociating and reducing conditions, the Schistosoma mansoni adult worm antigen (AWA). The sera of 30 infected Venezuelan children were assayed for specific recognition of AWA by IgG, IgM, IgE, IgA, and the four IgG subclasses. Eight highly specific polypeptide molecules from the parasite of 118, 114, 105, 74, 71, 45, 36, and 30 kDa were recognized by total IgG. Additionally, IgG1 and IgG2 recognized a molecule of 100 kDa and IgM one of 77 kDa. The present data suggests that certain molecules from the adult worm, specially the 36 kDa, might be relevant in the specific immunodiagnosis of this parasitic disease. The fact that the children antibodies were able to recognize the primary structure of these antigens, will allow us to chemically synthesize the relevant linear epitopes.