A novel application of affinity biosensor technology to detect antibodies to mycolic acid in tuberculosis patients

Towards understanding the functional diversity of cell wall mycolic acids of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

“…There remained, however, an overlap between the anti-MA antibody binding signals between TB patient and control sera that made the ELISA outcome not adequately accurate as a diagnostic indicator. One way to get around this problem was to employ modern antibody detection technology where antibody binding is detected in real time, thereby increasing the sensitivity of the reaction [92,130]. These authors also showed that human TB patient anti-MA antibodies included IgG, by demonstrating that a significant part of the anti-MA antibody activity could be purified with Protein A affinity chromatography, known to be insensitive for IgM.…”

Thiol modified mycolic acids

“…Part of the problem in this case may be that some of the antibodies present are cross-reactive to mycolic acids and cholesterol [Benadie, 2008]. In order to seek to improve sensitivity and specificity, Verschoor et al have developed a method based on the use of mycolic acid containing liposomes in an inhibition assay using surface Plasmon resonance [Verschoor, 2010;Thanyani et al, 2008;Lemmer et al, 2009]. One singular advantage of this method is that the signals are retained in HIV patients [Schleicher et al, 2002].…”

Future Applications of Electronic-Nose Technologies in Healthcare and Biomedicine

“…New types of biosensor technologies have been tested and developed recently. For example, Thanyani et al (2008) examined an affinity biosensor technology to detect antibodies to mycolic acid in tuberculosis patients. Mycolic acids are useful detection targets for tuberculosis because each Mycobacterium species produces unique types of mycolic acids in chemical structure and in association with specific liposomes.…”