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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2205-2209 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2020 |
Keywords
- ELISA
- Kexin protease
- Pneumocystis
- Pneumocystosis
- Serological diagnosis
- Synthetic recombinant antigen