Molecular cloning of an Echinococcus granulosus protein expressing an immunogenic epitope of antigen 5

cDNA was synthesized from RNA extracted from Echinococcus granulosus protoscoleces and cloned in the lambda gt11 expression vector. A pool of 5 E. granulosus patient sera was used to screen the library and allowed the selection of 13 clones. Ten of these were shown to be identical, among which clone 6 (Eg6) was chosen for further analysis. The nucleotide sequence (456-bp) presented an entire open reading frame coding for 152 amino acids. The fusion protein (FP6) was recognized by a mouse monoclonal antibody (EG 02 154/12) specific for E. granulosus antigen 5. Moreover, the presence of antibodies to FP6 seemed to be correlated to the ability of sera from hydatidosis patients to immunoprecipitate antigen 5. These results indicate that the cloned protein could be used as a standardized antigen for the diagnosis of hydatidosis.