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P35 and P22 Toxoplasma gondii antigens abbreviate regions to diagnose acquired toxoplasmosis during pregnancy: toward single-sample assays

  • Juan G. Costa , Leandro E. Peretti , Valeria S. García , Luz Peverengo , Verónica D.G. González , Luis M. Gugliotta , Maria L. Dalla Fontana , Claudia M. Lagier EMAIL logo and Iván S. Marcipar EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 22, 2016

Abstract

Background:

P35 and P22 Toxoplasma gondii proteins are recognized by specific IgG at the early infection stage, making them ideal for acute toxoplasmosis pregnancy control. Both proteins have been studied to discriminate between acute and chronic toxoplasmosis. However, results were hardly comparable because different protein obtainment procedures led to different antigens, the reference panels used were not optimally typified, and avidity tests were either not performed or narrowly examined.

Methods:

We bioinformatically predicted P35 and P22 regions with the highest density of epitopes, and expressed them in pET32/BL21DE3 alternative expression system, obtaining the soluble proteins rP35a and rP22a. We assessed their diagnostic performance using pregnant woman serum samples typified as: not infected, NI (IgG−, IgM−), typical-chronic, TC (IgM−, IgG+), presumably acute, A (IgG+, IgM+, low-avidity IgG), and recently chronic, RC (IgG+, IgM+, high-avidity IgG).

Results:

rP35a performed better than rP22a to differentiate A from RC, the areas under the curve (AUC) being 0.911 and 0.818, respectively. They, however, performed similarly to differentiate A from TC+RC (AUC: 0.915 and 0.907, respectively). rP35a and rP22a evaluation by avidity ELISA to discriminate A from RC rendered AUC values of 0.974 and 0.921, respectively. The indirect ELISA and avidity ELISA results analyzed in tandem were consistent with those obtained using commercial kits.

Conclusions:

rP35a and rP22a features suggest that, with complementary use, they could replace parasite lysate for toxoplasmosis infection screening and for acute toxoplasmosis diagnosis. Our proposal should be validated by a longitudinal study and may lead to a reliable toxoplasmosis pregnancy control, performing tests in only one serum sample.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentinean Research Council, supported this work (PIP N° 112 2009 0100545).

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2016-4-19
Accepted: 2016-8-16
Published Online: 2016-9-22
Published in Print: 2017-3-1

©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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