[Anti-Nocardia brasiliensis antibodies in patients with actinomycetoma and their clinical usefulness]

Abstract

Anti-Nocardia brasiliensis antibodies quantification and its clinical utility was confirmed in this study. A protein cellular extract from a N. brasiliensis strain named HUJEG-1 and registered at the ATCC # 700358 was used in a western blot assay to identify the immunodominant antigens. The protein P24 was selected to set up an ELISA test because it exhibit no cross-reaction with sera from tuberculosis and leprosy patients. A purified protease was also used as antigen in the ELISA test to compare its utility. Sera from N. brasiliensis mycetoma persons gave absorbance values above 0.3 when the disease was active using the P24 as antigen, these values decreased after patients completed their medical treatment. Anti-protease antibodies showed great variation and absorbance values similar to the healthy controls. We confirmed the clinical usefulness of the ELISA test both in serodiagnosis and in assessing the response to medical treatment. This is the first sensitive and specific serologic test for routine clinical laboratory.