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Leishmania major-Like Antigen for Specific and Sensitive Serodiagnosis of Human and Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis

Departamento de Farmácia, UFOP,¹ Departamento de Bioquímica-Imunologia,² Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas,⁵ Departamento de Alimentos, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,⁴ Fundação Ezequiel Dias, Minas Gerais, Brazil³

Received 12 February 2002/ Returned for modification 17 May 2002/ Accepted 19 August 2002

An antigen (LMS) prepared from Leishmania major-like promastigotes was used in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of human and dog visceral leishmaniasis. The results were compared with those from the indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT). A total of 1,822 canine sera were tested, including sera from dogs with visceral leishmaniasis, transmissible venereal tumors, ehrlichiosis, rickettsiosis, or Chagas' disease and sera from healthy dogs. The antigen was also tested with 227 samples of human sera, including sera from patients with visceral, cutaneous, or diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and from noninfected individuals, as well as sera from patients with Chagas' disease, toxoplasmosis, rickettsiosis, hepatitis B, schistosomiasis, ascaridiasis, malaria, rheumatoid factor, leprosy and rheumatoid factor, tuberculosis, or leprosy. All dogs and all human patients had a clinical and/or serological and/or parasitological diagnosis. For detecting antibodies in sera from dogs with leishmaniasis, the antigen showed a sensitivity of 98%, specificity of 95%, and concordance of 93% and when used for detecting antibodies in human sera presented a sensitivity of 92%, specificity of 100%, and concordance of 92%. Comparison between ELISA and IFAT demonstrated that ELISA using the LMS antigen yielded more reliable results than IFAT. The LMS antigen displayed no cross-reactivity with sera from patients or dogs that had any of the other diseases tested.