PLoS ONE (Jan 2018)

Sensitivity and specificity of recombinant proteins in Toxocara spp. for serodiagnosis in humans: Differences in adult and child populations.

  • Lucas Moreira Dos Santos,
  • Carolina Georg Magalhães,
  • Paula de Lima Telmo,
  • Michele Pepe Cerqueira,
  • Rafael Amaral Donassolo,
  • Fábio Pereira Leivas Leite,
  • Guita Rubinsky Elefant,
  • Luciana Farias da Costa Avila,
  • Carlos James Scaini,
  • Ângela Nunes Moreira,
  • Fabricio Rochedo Conceição

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208991
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 12
p. e0208991

Abstract

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Toxocariasis is a neglected zoonosis that affects children and adults. Recombinant proteins have been widely investigated for diagnosis, achieving high sensitivity and specificity in an overall population; however, little is known about age as a factor in its application. This study aims to investigate the diagnostic potential of Toxocara canis TES-30 and TES-120 recombinant proteins in humans, differentiating between its performance in children and adults. Serum samples collected from children and adults seropositive to Toxocara spp. were tested with indirect ELISA using T. canis TES-30 and TES-120 recombinant proteins produced in Escherichia coli. While rTES-30 sensitivity was not affected by age (81.8% in children and 87% in adults), rTES-120 sensitivity severely decreased in children to only 63.6%, down from 95.7% in adults. Furthermore, the sensitivity of rTES-30 increased to 97.8% after Western blotting confirmation. High specificity (>94%) against other geohelminths was reported for both recombinant proteins. Our study favors the use of rTES-30 with total IgG as the primary antibody in an indirect ELISA assay as a tool for epidemiological human studies.