[Shigella endotoxin protein--its electrophoretic and serological properties]

The electrophoretic analysis of lipid A-associated protein (LAP), obtained from S. sonnei, in polyacrylamide gel in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate and urea has revealed the heterogeneity of the preparation; it has found to contain three main components with molecular weights of 43, 38 and 18 KD and some minor components with molecular weights of 49, 45 35, 30, 29, 27, 5, 21 and 14 KD. The electrophoretic mobility of the main protein components in the isolated preparation of LAP coincides with that of endotoxin components. The dissociation of proteins and lipopolysaccharide in the process of boiling the endotoxin in 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate is indicative of the noncovalent binding of these components. LAP contained in the endotoxin, in contrast to isolated LAP, is resistant to trypsin and proteinase K. The enzyme immunoassay (EIA) system with the use of LAP as a component of its solid phase has been developed, which makes it possible to carry out the quantitative determination of antibodies to this protein. The EIA system shows high sensitivity in the determination of anti-LAP IgG antibodies: in hyperimmune rabbit sera their titer is 1:250,000-1:800,000. As shown by the method of competitive EIA, the antigenic affinity of LAP of different origin corresponds to the degree of taxonomic propinquity of microorganisms: the maximal degree of cross reactions is observed between LAP obtained from S. sonnei, S. flexneri and Escherichia coli, while their affinity to Salmonella typhi is considerably less; remote microbial species (Bacterium bifidum and Sarcina marcescens) give practically no cross reactions.