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Microscopy-based Assays for High-throughput Screening of Host Factors Involved in Brucella Infection of Hela Cells
Published on: August 5, 2016
Brucella melitensis VirB12 recombinant protein is a potential marker for serodiagnosis of human brucellosis
Shiva Mirkalantari1, Amir-Hassan Zarnani2,3, Mahboobeh Nazari4
1Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Background:
The numerous drawbacks of current serological tests for diagnosis of brucellosis which mainly results from cross reactivity with LPS from other gram-negative bacteria have generated an increasing interest to find more specific non-LPS antigens. Previous studies had indicated that Brucella VirB12 protein, a cell surface protein and component of type IV secretion system, induces antibody response during animal infection. However, this protein has not yet been tested as a serological diagnostic marker in human brucellosis.
Methods:
Recombinant VirB12 protein was prepared and evaluated the efficacy of it in an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for brucellosis with sera collected from different region of Iran and the results were compared with a commercial ELISA kit.
Results:
Sera from human brucellosis patients strongly reacted to the purified recombinant VirB12. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, negative predictive value and positive predictive value of recombinant VirB12-based ELISA related to the commercial-ELISA method were 87.8, 94, 90, 80 and 96.6% respectively.
Conclusions:
We concluded that antigenic VirB12 have a property value that can be considered as a candidate for using in serodiagnostic tests for human brucellosis.
