[Primary characterization of the properties and diagnostic value of the antigenic complex "fraction V" in a plague...

The experimentally obtained antigenic complex isolated by extraction in the gradient surfactants from live and acetone-dried bacteria of the capsule-free vaccine strain EV76 of a plague microbe that had lost its ability to synthesize the diagnostic species-specific capsular antigen F1 was investigated. The antigenic complex fraction V (FV) was obtained after the fifth stage of extraction at a concentration of 1.28% of surfactants and after additional purification. The thermostable FV was found to consist mainly of protein. The protein having a molecular mass of about 43 kD predominates in the fraction. The latter is nontoxic for albino mice and antigenic. It forms a precipitate with commercial antiplague serum antibodies. FV antigenic sensitization of tanned sheep red blood cells gave rise to a diagnostic agent that specifically reacted with an antiplague serum rather than with heterologous sera against enterobacteria. The sera immunized with FV specifically reacted in the JDJFR with all the strains of the pathogen of plague irrespective of the temperature of their cultivation, including "fraction-free", which did not interact with a diagnosticum on F1. The animal sera immunized with capsule-free plague microbial strain reacted only with a FV-erythrocytic diagnosticum and they did not interact with F1 antigen-sensitized red blood cells. The erythrocytic FV diagnosticum was tested in ABNR with 130 typical and atypical plague microbial strains and with 133 strains of heterologous bacteria of different species of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The FV diagnosticum identified all the variants of a plague microbe, while the F1 diagnosticum revealed only its capsular variants. Among the heterologous bacteria, some strains of the closely related pathogen of pseudotuberculosis in those who were in the R form, rather than S form, positively reacted. The use of FV identified 2 groups of hybridomas obtained after immunization of albino mice with the capsule-free variant of a plague microbe. Some hybridomas reacted only with plague bacteria while others did with two above pathogens. The authors substantiate the expediency of using FV, its components, and obtained monoclonal plague pathogen antibodies to improve antiplague diagnosticums with an activity spectrum that exceeds that of the existing commercial F1 antigen-based diagnosticums. They also discuss the lines of further studies.