Production and Evaluation of Recombinant Trichinella Papuae Tissue -Type Plasminogen Activator for Immunodiagnosis of Human Trichinellosis Papuae

Abstract

Trichinellosis is a serious worldwide disease arising from infection with zoonotic Trichinella nematodes. Immunodiagnosis is a crucial sensitive and relatively painless non-invasive method that combined with clinical symptoms and patient history allows species-specific diagnosis of trichinellosis. Currently, immunodiagnostic tests have been developed using different types of antigens, such as crude worm, excretory/secretory, tyvelose-bearing and, more recently, recombinant antigens, most of which are focused on trichinellosis spiralis (caused by Trichinella sp belonging to encapsulated clade). Here, we established for the first time a recombinant protein-based indirect IgG-ELISA for detection of human trichinellosis papuae (resulting from infection of Trichinella sp belonging to the non-encapsulated clade) using a 40 kDa recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rTpaPLAT). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of rTpaPLAT-based ELISA was 100, 86, 44, and 100%, respectively against a battery of 200 human sera from 32 different parasite infections and 26 from healthy controls. Noteworthy, there were no false positive results with trichinellosis spiralis sera. This technique should be of use in immunodiagnosis, seroprevalence and surveillance of human trichinellosis papuae.