The Immunodiagnostic Potential of Purified Protoscoleces Antigen in Hydatidosis Using Different Immunological Techniques

Abstract

Human hydatidosis (echinococcosis) is a parasitic disease caused by tapeworms of the genus Echinococcus. The two most important forms of this disease in humans are cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE). Humans are infected through ingestion of parasite eggs in contaminated food, water or soil, or through direct contact with animal hosts. Echinococcosis is often expensive and complicated to treat, and may require extensive surgery and/or prolonged drug therapy. This work is designed to evaluate the role of prepared protoscolex antigen in the diagnosis of the infection of hydatidosis. Detection of E. granulosus antigens is a better immunodiagnostic tool than determination of the antibody level. The circulating protoscolex antigen (CPA) used was obtained from lung and liver cysts of sheep and camel and injected in rabbits to raise specific polyclonal antibodies (pAb) against E. granulosus. Both sandwich and dot ELISA are done to evaluate the circulating antigen in sera of tested samples (83 human and 252 animals). Detection of CPA in serum by sandwich ELISA in human gave a sensitivity of 94.9%, a specificity of 93.5%, PPV of 92.5% and NPV of 95.6%. And in animals gave a sensitivity of 93.5%,