Plasmonic ELISA for the ultra-sensitive detection of anti-Leishmania sp. IgG antibodies

• Grant number: 17/11016-6
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Applied Immunology
• Cooperation agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal researcher: Valéria Marçal Felix de Lima
• Grantee: Marilene Oliveira dos Santos Maciel
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FMVA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) most dogs develop a humoral immune response, with high IgG anti-Leishmania sp. And a wide variety of clinical signs of leishmaniasis. However, in endemic areas, many infected dogs are asymptomatic and sometimes with low titers of antibodies that are undetectable by the existing standard serological methods. To overcome this limitation, the plasmonic ELISA (pELISA) appears to be effective in the ultra-sensitive detection of several biomarkers of important diseases. In this perspective the present research aims to validate a pELISA strategy for the detection of anti-Leishmania sp. A total number (n) of 180 blood samples from adult dogs of both sexes will be obtained from the collection routine of the canine serological survey of the different sectors of the municipality of Araçatuba/SP, an endemic area for VL. There will also be 35 blood samples from adult dogs of both sexes obtained from the laboratory routine of an area not endemic for the disease. The serological samples will be tested using the pELISA technique and compared to conventional ELISA and the real-time PCR in peripheral blood will be adopted as the gold standard. The research also predicts to quantify the parasite load in samples of skin biopsy and / or subconjunctival mucosal swab of positive dogs in the pELISA but negative in the conventional ELISA through qPCR and to identify the minimum titer of antibodies that both techniques can detect in samples with positive serology. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DOS SANTOS MACIEL, MARILENE OLIVEIRA; SOARES, MATHEUS FUJIMURA; COSTA, SIDNEI FERRO; BRAGATO, JAQUELINE POLETO; DE FREITAS, JESSICA HENRIQUE; VENTURIN, GABRIELA LOVIZUTTO; MELO, LARISSA MARTINS; REBECH, GABRIELA TORRES; REED, STEVE; FELIX DE LIMA, VALERIA MARCAL. Development of plasmonic ELISA for the detection of anti-Leishmania sp. IgG antibodies. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGICAL METHODS, v. 474, NOV 2019. Web of Science Citations: 1.