Identification and Characterization of a Novel Leishmania donovani Antigen for Serodiagnosis of Visceral Leishmaniasis

Subodh Kumar Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi–India

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Dinesh Kumar Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi–India

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Jaya Chakravarty Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi–India

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Madhukar Rai Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi–India

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Shyam Sundar Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi–India

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Despite several drawbacks, rK39-based rapid immunochromatographic test is widely used for the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Indian subcontinent. There is an urgent need to develop a better antigen. In this study we separated crude soluble antigens of Leishmania donovani by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and hybridized with pool sera from pre- and post-treated VL patients, 6 months follow-up, endemic healthy (EHC), and nonendemic healthy controls (NEHC) by Western blotting. The sensitivity of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with identified protein was 95% (confidence interval [CI] = 89.6–98.01%), whereas the specificity for EHC, NEHC, and different disease groups were 96.3% (CI = 89.8–98.6%), 100% (CI = 95.8–100%), and 97.4% (CI = 91.02–99.3%), respectively. This specific antigen was subjected to two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and after tryptic digestion, antigen was characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Further analysis showed that it is a member of the heat shock protein family of 70 kDa, designated as BHUP1, and has great potential in the diagnosis of VL.

Author Notes

*Address correspondence to Shyam Sundar, Infectious Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences Banaras Hindu University Varanasi-221 005. E-mail: doctorshyamsundar@gmail.com

Financial support: This work was supported by NIAID, NIH grant no.: 1P50AI074321. Subodh Kumar and Dinesh Kumar thank the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India for providing fellowship.

Authors’ addresses: Subodh Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Jaya Chakravarty, Madhukar Rai, and Shyam Sundar, Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, E-mails: subodh_bt2003@yahoo.co.in, praja_dinesh@yahoo.co.in, tapadar@gmail.com, rai_madhukar@gmail.com, and drshyamsundar@hotmail.com.

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