SANDWICH-ELISA DEVELOPMENT FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF TOXOPLASMA GONDII

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Egypt.

2 Department of Parasitology, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute (TBRI), P.O. Box 30 Imbaba, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most world-wide spread zoonosis representing a very serious clinical and veterinary problem. Although rare, congenital toxoplasmosis can cause severe neurological or ocular disease (leading to blindness) as well as cardiac and cerebral anomalies. Prenatal care must include education about prevention of toxoplasmosis. Thus, a standardized and approachable diagnostic tool for the serodiagnosis of toxoplasmosis is still needed. Serological
tests are the most widely used biological tools for the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis worldwide. Sandwich-ELISA is a solid phase diagnostic method for detection of antigen or antibody that is used widely for diagnosis of protozoan and metazoan diseases of human and animals. In the present study, T. gondii SAG2 antigen was early detected in patient sera using Ssndwich-ELISA, PAb was prepared from anti-rabbit sera and used for coating and as conjugate in Sandwich 
ELISA technique. 46 patients out of 50 were positive to Toxoplsama spp. with sensitivity and specificity 92% and 90%, respectively. The PPV was 90.2% and NPV was 83.3%. Finally, the result of our study showed that the Sandwich-ELISA designed in our study is easy to perform, not expensive, safe, and simple with good sensitivity and specificity.

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