Diagnosis of typhoid fever: detection of Salmonella typhi porins-specific antibodies by inhibition ELISA.

Porins are highly immunogenic outer membrane proteins of Salmonella. Sera from typhoid patients contained a high level of IgG antibodies directed to porins of Salm. typhi. Since porins are highly conserved proteins, anti-porins antibodies both from typhoid patients and healthy normals reacted with porins from several Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, in order to improve the specificity of detecting Salm. typhi porins-specific antibodies, an inhibition ELISA was developed using enzyme-conjugated MoAbs (MP1 and MPN4) specific to Salm. typhi porins. Sera from typhoid patients with positive haemoculture (16 out of 17) inhibited the binding of MP1 to porins, thus showing a positive test for typhoid, whereas sera from patients with other Gram-negative bacterial infections (n = 7) and from healthy volunteers (66 out of 67) were found to be negative. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of this assay were 94.1, 98.7, 97.8, 94.1 and 98.7% respectively. The validity of our inhibition ELISA for typhoid was higher than that of the Widal test. The diagnosis of typhoid fever as early as 3 days after the onset of fever, using a single specimen is possible.