Detection of anti-Pneumocystis jirovecii antibodies in human serum using a recombinant synthetic multi-epitope kexin-based antigen

Ana Luísa Tomás, Fernando Cardoso, Bruno de Sousa, Olga Matos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Interest in the detection of specific anti-Pneumocystis jirovecii antibodies has emerged as less-invasive alternative diagnostic approaches. Here is presented the performance of an ELISA based on a recombinant synthetic multi-epitope kexin 1 (Kex1) antigen of P. jirovecii, previously developed. Results showed that IgM anti-Kex1 levels were found significantly increased in patients with Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) compared with non-PcP cases (p < 0.001), allowing a diagnostic performance of PcP with a 70.8% sensitivity and a 75.0% specificity. These results suggest that this Kex1-based ELISA is a promising tool toward the serodiagnosis of PcP when the standard methods are difficult to perform.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2205-2209
Number of pages5
JournalEuropean Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
Volume39
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2020

Keywords

  • ELISA
  • Kexin protease
  • Pneumocystis
  • Pneumocystosis
  • Serological diagnosis
  • Synthetic recombinant antigen

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