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Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011.

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Other Authors: Verschoor, Jan Adrianus
Format: Thesis
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Verschoor, Jan Adrianus
author_browse Verschoor, Jan Adrianus
author_facet Verschoor, Jan Adrianus
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2008 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/30500
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:52.763Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/30500 Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis Verschoor, Jan Adrianus vanessa_valerie@hotmail.com Pilcher, Lynne A. Roberts, Vanessa Valerie Tuberculosis Mycolic acid Mycobacterium tuberculosis UCTD Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. Tuberculosis (TB) is a collective name for the bacterial infection, which is caused by members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) complex and can infect the lungs (pulmonary) as well as the kidneys, lymph nodes, bones and joints (extra-pulmonary). The re-emergence of drug-resistant strains and the HIV epidemic are among the main reasons for the resurgence of TB and there is a need for new drugs and diagnostic assays which are rapid and sensitive. Serodiagnostic assays have the potential of being rapid, inexpensive and relatively non-invasive. The most abundant antigen in the cell wall of M. tb, which has been analysed with ELISA and resonant mirror biosensor assays for use in serodiagnosis, is mycolic acid (MA). The sensitivity previously obtained in the ELISA assay was however inadequate for serodiagnostic purposes. It was believed that MA mimicked the structure of cholesterol, thereby causing anti-cholesterol human antibodies from TB negative sera to bind to MA and result in a large number of false positives. Within this work the apparent molecular mimicry between MA and cholesterol was investigated using a competitive enzyme linked inhibition assay (CELIA) assay. The results suggested that MA in liposomes resembled the liquid ordered arrangement of cholesterol in liposomes, rather than a direct mimicry of individual molecules. The nature of the antibody from TB negative patient sera binding to MA coated onto ELISA plates was also investigated. The results obtained from this study have not disproved the hypothesis of a cross-reactive anti-cholesterol antibody, but it would appear that the MA signal from TB negative serum was partially due to the binding of anti-MA antibodies. The presence of anti-MA antibodies in TB negative serum could have been the result of prior BCG vaccination, latent infection or due to constant immune stimulation from saprophytic mycobacteria. This creates the potential of using antibodies to MA to distinguish between latent TB infection and active disease. Furthermore, in order to overcome the low sensitivity of the ELISA assay due to high background signals from TB negative serum, members of our group previously developed a resonant mirror biosensor inhibition assay based on MA contained in liposomes. The biosensor measured mass accumulation and the identity of the binding molecules were unknown. It was shown here that one of the serum components binding to the immobilised MA liposomes in the biosensor inhibition assay was immunoglobulin G antibodies. The specificity of both the ELISA and biosensor assays previously analysed using a natural mixture of MA however, remained poor, and in the search for a more specific antigen, this study investigated the potential of MA subclasses for TB serodiagnosis using ELISA. It was observed that the antibody binding signal to the MA subclasses depended on the polarity of the coating solution, for which hexane was the preferred solvent. Both the alpha- and keto-MA subclasses could better distinguish between a range of TB positive patient and TB negative sera compared with the natural mixture of MA. These results suggested that a particular subclass applied in the biosensor inhibition assay could enhance the test to reach the required sensitivity and specificity required for the serodiagnosis TB. Biochemistry unrestricted 2013-09-07T19:13:21Z 2009-05-26 2013-09-07T19:13:21Z 2008-04-30 2011-05-26 2008-12-21 Dissertation Roberts, VV 2008, Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis, MSc dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/30500 > C176/eo http://hdl.handle.net/2263/30500 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12212008-142720/ © 2008 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Tuberculosis
Mycolic acid
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
UCTD
Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
title Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
title_full Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
title_fullStr Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
title_full_unstemmed Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
title_short Immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
title_sort immunochemistry of mycolic acid antigens in tuberculosis
topic Tuberculosis
Mycolic acid
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/30500
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12212008-142720/