Establishment Of A Sandwich ELISA Method For Quantitative Detection Of 38kd Antigen And Its Application To Diagnosis Of Tuberculous Meningitis

BackgroundTuberculous meningitis kills or disables roughly half of people affected. However,the diagnosis of Tuberculous meningitis is difficult, because its clinical features are non-specific and laboratory tests are insensitive leading to treatment delay, which is the biggest risk factor for death. However, advances in the treatment of Tuberculous meningitis are insufficient in the face of drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV co-infection. Many questions remain about the best approaches to prevent, diagnose, and treat tuberculous meningitis, are still largely remained. ObjectiveTo establish a sandwich ELISA method for quantitative detection of cerebrospinal fluid 38 kd antigen, and to apply the method to the diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis. MethodsA nouse 38 kd monoclonal antibody was used as the capture antibody, and a rabbit anti-38 kd polyclonal antibody for the detection of antibody.According to standard protocol, we established a sandwich ELISA method to detect 38 kd antigen;After that, the method was applid to detect 38 kd antigen levels in cerebrospinal fluid samples from 42 patients with the diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis. Cerebrospinal fluid samples from non- tuberculous meningitis patients or normal people were used as the control. ResultsWe successfully established of the sandwich ELISA method for detection of 38 kd antigen in the cerebrospinal fluid,and the sensitivity is up to 0.4 μg / L. 38 kd antigen was not detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of control group, while in patients with tuberculous meningitis, 38 kd antigen is at a high level. ConclusionA sensitive ELISA methord for detection 38 kd antigen, can be used to diagnose tuberculous meningitis early.