[Pattern of antibodies in acute human brucellosis defined by Western blotting]

We have evaluated with Western blotting the serologic response of 144 patients with acute brucellosis and 62 healthy controls to identify a useful antibody pattern to confirm the diagnosis of acute brucellosis. The antigen that we used was a protein extract of whole cells of the strain 115 (rough) of B. melitensis. Patients sera were obtained at the time of diagnosis and before the start of specific therapy. There was antibody response to 21 protein bands. The molecular weights (MW) and frequencies of the most significant bands were the following: 85 Kd (60.4%), 70 Kd (54.1%), 53 Kd (63.9%), 50 Kd (65.3%), 47 Kd (71.5%), 41 Kd (74.3%), 38 Kd (68.7%), 33 Kd (56.2%), 28 Kd (52.8%). At the time of diagnosis, 90.3% of the patients with acute brucellosis had antibody response to 2 or more protein bands of Mw of 47 Kd, 41 Kd, 38 Kd and 33 Kd. In none of the 62 negative control sera there was a response to more than one of the mentioned bands.