[Investigation of the protein composition and immunochemical properties of Toxoplasma gondii excretory and secretory antigen]

Abstract

The major proteins of T. gondii excretory and secretory antigens (ESA) obtained during cultivation of tachyzoites by using cultured Vero cells were shown to have molecular weights of 79, 70, 57, 48, 36, and 29 kD. ESA and somatic antigen immunoblotting demonstrated that there were noticeable differences in the immunoactive proteins of these antigens. The antibodies of the sera of patients with toxoplasmosis mainly interacted with ESA proteins having molecular weights of 79, 70, 57, 48, 36, and 29 kD, 57-kD ESA protein antibodies being present on the immunoblots of all the tested sera. When ESA was used as an antigen during enzyme immunoassay, it showed a high sensitivity in the detection of IgM antigens in congenital toxoplasmosis. At the same time, ESA identified the antibodies of this class in the sera of healthy donors much infrequently than somatic antigen (p < 0.05).