Immunoaffinity chromatographic isolation of a high molecular weight seroreactive protein from Mycobacterium leprae cell sonicate

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to isolate Mycobacterium leprae antigen(s) by immunoaffinity chromatography using immunoglobulins from leprosy patients and from rabbit anti-M. leprae hyperimmune serum coupled to CNBr-Sepharose 4B. A high molecular weight (M(r)) M. leprae protein (MLP) with a subunit M(r) of 22,000 was isolated. MLP was recognized by monoclonal antibody MMPII1G4 which is known to react with MMPII, a 22 kDa protein of M. leprae. The N-terminal sequence of the 22 kDa subunit (Met-gln-gly-asp-pro-asp-val-leu-arg-leu-leu-asn-glu-gln-leu-thr) was identical to MMPII and to antigen D (bacterioferritin) of M. paratuberculosis. It showed 44% homology with N-terminal end of E. coli bacterioferritin. In ELISA, MLP showed 100% and 60% positivity with leprosy and TB sera respectively as compared to normal healthy sera. The role of bacterioferritin in M. leprae and the importance of MLP as an immunogen has been discussed.

Evaluation of major membrane protein-II as a tool for serodiagnosis of leprosy

“…There is only one report showing that the sera from leprosy patients had a higher IgG titer to MMP-II, regardless of the clinical type of leprosy (Deshpande et al, 1995). However, their study was carried out with a limited number of individuals (n = 10 in each group), and so, here, a more systematic study has been conducted for evaluating the expediency of measuring anti-MMP-II antibody levels.…”

Caracterización molecular y funcional de la respuesta de la acidez en Bordetella bronchiseptica

“…Las propiedades inmunogénicas de esta proteína han motivado estudios que la incluyen dentro de diferentes estrategias inmuno-preventivas con resultados hasta ahora muy variables [238,[242][243][244][245].…”