Development of highly specific monoclonal antibodies for the diagnosis of Vibrio cholerae 01.

We report here the development of two monoclonal antibodies, termed 5G8 and 5C12, belonging to the IgM and IgG1 class, respectively, suitable for the identification of Vibrio cholerae 01 in clinical and environmental samples. The specificities of the monoclonals were evaluated by ELISA and indirect immunofluorescent microscopy of microorganisms normally present in stool samples and with two bacterial panels. One panel included 72 potentially antigenically related bacterial strains and the second panel included 20 pathogenic bacterial strains involved in diarrhea cases. The results of these extensive analyses indicate that monoclonal antibodies 5G8 and 5C12 are highly specific and suitable for the clinical diagnosis of Vibrio cholerae 01 in human stool samples by indirect immunofluorescent microscopy. Although the antigenic sites recognized by these antibodies were not identified in this study, the observation of Western blot patterns suggested that 5G8 and 5C12 monoclonal antibodies bind to LPS epitopes, a good structural marker for the detection of V. cholerae 01 because it is present in all bacterial cell walls.