CVI Accepts, published online ahead of print on 7 October 2009

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Google Scholar Articles by Coelho, E. A. F. Articles by Soto, M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Coelho, E. A. F. Articles by Soto, M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Clin. Vaccine Immunol. doi:10.1128/CVI.00295-09
Copyright (c) 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Specific serodiagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis using Leishmania ribosomal protein extracts.

Eduardo A. F. Coelho, Laura Ramírez, Mariana A. F. Costa, Vinicio T. S. Coelho, Vivian T. Martins, Miguel A. Chávez-Fumagalli, Dulcilene M. Oliveira, Carlos A. P. Tavares, Pedro Bonay, Carlos Gómez Nieto, Daniel R Abánades, Carlos Alonso, and Manuel Soto^*

Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, ICB and Departmento de Patologia Clínica, Coltec, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 31.270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, CSIC-UAM, Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain; Unidad de Parasitología y Enfermedades Parasitarias, Universidad de Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain; Departamento de Farmacologia Bioquímica e Molecular, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 31.270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: msoto{at}cbm.uam.es.

In the present work we have analyzed the antigenicity of the Leishmania ribosomal proteins (LRP). To accomplish this, Leishmania infantum ribosomes were biochemically purified from promastigotes cytosolic extracts and their reactivity was analyzed using the sera from dogs naturally infected with L. infantum. Since antibodies reacting against different ribosomal proteins were observed in all the tested sera obtained from dogs having symptomatic visceral leishmaniasis, we have analyzed the potential usefulness of the LRP extracts in the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the serodiagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in an area of Brazil that is endemic for VL due to infection by Leishmania chagasi. A comparative ELISA test using crude soluble Leishmania chagasi antigen (SLA) and L. infantum LPR was performed. LRP and SLA based ELISAs gave similar sensitivity for diagnosis of symptomatic CVL, but the LRP extract provided a very high sensitivity for the detection of oligosymptomatic and asymptomatic dogs. In addition, a LRP based ELISA test showed higher specificity when the sera from dogs harbouring other infections were included in the analysis. LRP antigen displayed no cross reactivity with sera from dogs that had any of the other diseases tested, notably, Chagas disease. Our findings suggest that LRP are a potential tool for the diagnosis of CVL and will be particularly useful for diagnosis of asymptomatic CVL.