Due to a high global burden, the severity of the illness and the poor surveillance, prevention and treatment of the disease, toxocarosis constitutes a ‘neglected parasitic infection’ according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Woodhall et al., 2014 CDC, 2020). In severe cases, especially in children under 5 years of age, blindness, eosinophilic meningitis, encephalitis or myelitis may occur (Strube et al., 2013). Persisting third-stage larvae (元) may cause disease, including unspecific forms, the so-called covert toxocarosis, as well as visceral larva migrans, ocular larva migrans and neurotoxocarosis. The dog roundworm Toxocara canis and the cat roundworm Toxocara cati are worldwide-distributed zoonotic intestinal helminths, which infect humans as paratenic hosts. Overall, the evaluated ELISA and WB prototypes showed high sensitivity and specificity, indicating high reliability of these newly developed tests. Cross-reactivity was observed for some samples positive for Ascaris and Trichinella spp. A comparison to the IH-ELISA revealed 91.5% (225/246) sensitivity and 94.6% (279/295) specificity of the Proto-WB with a Cohen's κ of 0.86. The sensitivity of the Proto-WB was 76.7% (240/313) and specificity was 99.6% (227/228) with a Cohen's κ of 0.73 compared to those of Com-WB. Compared to the IH-ELISA, a sensitivity of 93.1% (229/246) and a specificity of 94.6% (279/295) of the Proto-ELISA with a Cohen's κ of 0.88 were obtained. To evaluate sensitivity and specificity of the newly developed ELISA and WB prototypes, results were compared to IH-ELISA and a commercial WB (Com-WB). Therefore, an Anti- Toxocara-ELISA immunoglobulin g (IgG) prototype (Proto-ELISA) and an Anti- Toxocara-Westernblot (IgG) prototype (Proto-WB) were evaluated by testing 541 human sera pre-determined for Toxocara infection by an established in-house Anti- Toxocara-ELISA (IH-ELISA). Nevertheless, the availability of serological tests, particularly western blots (WB), evaluated for sensitivity and specificity is limited. Serological antibody detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)- and immunoblot-based methods constitutes the best indicator of human Toxocara infection.
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