Comparative evaluation of purified Taenia solium glycoproteins and crude metacestode extracts by immunoblotting for the serodiagnosis of human T. solium cysticercosis.

A lentil-lectin purified glycoprotein (LL-Gp) and a crude saline extract of Taenia solium metacestodes were compared for the immunodiagnosis of human cysticercosis by immunoblotting. The LL-Gp preparation was 95% sensitive for antibodies against a range of seven antigens with molecular masses of 50 to 13 kDa, whereas the sensitivity of the crude saline extract for the detection of antibodies against two major polypeptide molecules (26 and 8 kDa) was 91%. Specificity was 100% with both sets of diagnostic antigens. Affinity-purified antibodies against the 26-kDa molecule from the crude saline extract recognized the 24-kDa diagnostic region in the LL-Gp-purified extract and vice versa, suggesting that the antigens had common epitopes recognized by cysticercotic sera. In addition, in a preliminary community study of 115 randomly selected people from Bali (Indonesia), seroprevalence by immunoblot assay varied from 7.8% (with the crude saline antigen extract) to 9.6% (with the LL-Gp-purified extract). The results of this study demonstrate that both antigenic preparations are applicable for the immunodiagnosis of T. solium cysticercosis. The crude T. solium metacestode antigen extract was as specific as the purified LL-Gp T. solium metacestode extract and simpler to produce but slightly less sensitive.