Development of an enzyme immunoassay employing low molecular weight recombinant Ag1 and Ag1V1 proteins of cystic fluid for the serodiagnosis of porcine cysticercosis.

Taenia solium cysticercosis is one of the neglected tropical diseases with public health importance especially in developing countries across the globe. Pigs serve as the intermediate host in the life cycle of T.solium and acts as a major source of infection to humans. Detecting the infection in pigs is extremely important in controlling the transmission in humans. In this study, the two low molecular weight antigens (Ag1 and Ag1V1) of T. solium cysticerci were cloned, sequenced and analyzed. After sequence confirmation, the purified PCR products were ligated into pET 32b expression vector and the recombinant proteins were expressed in prokaryotic expression system. The purified recombinant proteins were characterized by Western blotting using the hyperimmune sera raised against cyst fluid antigens. Further, the present study was aimed to develop enzyme linked immuno sorbent assays (ELISA) using recombinant Ag1 and Ag1V1 antigens. The sensitivity and specificity of the assay using Ag1 remained 95.3 % and 91.7 %, respectively and using Ag1V1 they were 93.7 % and 97.9 %, respectively, when compared with cystic fluid antigen. The weighted Cohen's kappa was recorded as 0.726 (95 % CI 0.588-0.865) for Ag1 Ag1 based ELISA and 0.847 (95 % CI 0.738-0.955) for the Ag1V1 based one. Hence, the developed assay can be exploited as a valuable tool in the diagnosis and sero-surveillance of porcine cysticercosis and thereby the high-risk areas can be identified to implement strategic control measures. However, as it is a preliminary study, further confirmation by assessment of infected and non-infected free roaming pig serum samples will reveal the clearer picture.