ABSTRACT
Background: One of the worldwide major public health problems is urinary schistosomiasis that is caused by Schistosoma heamatobium. There are several immunodiagnostic methods used for that diagnosis of such disease, but some are more sensitive and specific than others. The tegumental Schistosoma-specific protein detection in serum samples is found out to be more valuable in diagnosis.
Aim of the Work: To evaluate the efficacy of iron oxide nanoparticle for diagnosis of human schistosomiasis infections and to compare between ELISA-based iron oxide nanoparticle and traditional sandwich ELISA.
Material and Methods: The tegumental antigen was purified from whole worms by DEAE-Sephadex G-75 ion-exchange chromatography and then was injected into rabbits to produce specific polyclonal antibodies (p Ab) which were then used as a primary capture in the indirect ELISA technique to reveal its reactivity using infected human sera. The anti- tegumental p Ab was then labeled with horse-radish peroxidase (HRP) and used as a secondary capture. Sandwich ELISA was done for serum samples of humans and hamsters infected with S. haematobium.
Results: The sensitivity of the traditional sandwich ELISA with anti-tegumental p Ab was 85% and it increased by using the sandwich IMB-ELISA to be 95% in serum. The specificity of sandwich ELISA was 88.2% and it increased by using the sandwich IMB-ELISA to be 92.6%.
Conclusion: The data obtained concluded that the IMB-ELISA appears to be a sufficiently sensitive and feasible assay for the detection of schistosomal antigenemia and the evaluation of its potential use in human schistosomiasis is in progress.
Keywords: S. haematobium; diagnosis; ELISA; Immunomagnetic bead ELISA technique; Paramagnetic nanoparticles.