Angiostrongylus costaricensis egg antigen for the immunodiagnosis of abdominal angiostrongyliasis

Abstract

Angiostrongylus costaricensis is the aetiological agent of human abdominal angiostrongyliasis, a parasitic disease reported from the United States to Argentina, with a widespread occurrence of the nematode throughout Central and South America. This study assesses the performance of A. costaricensis eggs as antigen in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), for the determination of parasite-specific IgG1 antibodies. The specificity and the sensitivity of the method were 87% and 90.5%, respectively. Through this test it was possible to demonstrate a sharp and early decline in IgG1 antibody in serum samples taken from patients with histopathological diagnosis of abdominal angiostrongyliasis at different time points after surgical treatment. The present work demonstrated the usefulness of the egg antigen in the development of a specific diagnostic test for abdominal angiostrongylosis.

Proteolytic activity in the adult and larval stages of the human roundworm parasite Angiostrongylus costaricensis

“…This parasitic disease has been reported throughout Central and South America (Morera & Cespedes 1971, Incani et al 2007, Palominos et al 2008. In endemic areas, such as the southern region of Brazil, epidemiological and clinical features are used as diagnostic indications of AA (Agostini et al 1983, 1984, Ayala 1987, Graeff-Teixeira et al 1991, Bender et al 2003, Mesen-Ramirez et al 2008, Ben et al 2010, Abrahams-Sandi et al 2011. However, AA is a disease with unspecified clinical manifestations.…”

Comprehensive proteomic profiling of adult Angiostrongylus costaricensis, a human parasitic nematode

“…Such drastic intervention may be necessary for the correction of intestinal perforations or obstructions that are eventually observed in angiostrongyliasis infections [25,29]. The first immunochemical investigations have used antigen preparations made from crude adult worm [22][23][24]103,104] or egg [28,105] extracts from A. costaricensis. However, it is well known that crude antigenic preparations are not suitable for immunodiagnosis due to their broad cross-reactivity with other helminth species.…”

“…disease among medical personnel, on epidemiologic surveys of the infection in regional mollusk populations and on reliable serological tests based on well-defined antigens that are still not available [22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Pathologists should be on constant alert during histopathological analysis of cecal appendix and intestinal segments with intense eosinophilia; a detailed analysis can sometimes reveal eggs, vasculitis and even adult worms in unexpected material [29].…”

Use of heterologous antigens for the immunodiagnosis of abdominal angiostrongyliasis by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

“…Previously used antibody-based detection systems included precipitation reactions (Sauerbrey 1977) and latex agglutination using crude antigenic preparations; the latter has been used for many years in Costa Rica (Kramer et al 1998). In addition, low molecular weight peptides (Abraham et al 2004), egg antigens (Mesén-Ramírez et al 2008) and crude excretion-secretion antigens, as well as host antibody response at both the class (IgE, IgA) and isotype (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgG4) (Geiger et al 2001) levels, have been studied but not extensively evaluated in clinical or epidemiological settings. Due to insufficient sensitivities, specificities and reproducibilities of these assays in diagnosing A. costaricensis infections and the unavailability of protocols utilizing purified or recombinant antigens for diagnostic purposes, improvements to currently available crude antigen-based ELISA assays are necessary.…”