Detection of Schistosoma mansoni circulating cathodic antigen for evaluation of resistance induced by irradiated cercariae.

ABSTRACT

The appearance of serum levels of circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) detectable by a monoclonal antibody (mAb) (5H11) antigen-capture sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system was evaluated during acute Schistosoma mansoni infections in female CF1 mice exposed to either 100 or 25 cercariae. Measurable CCA levels occurred in these groups at 5 and 7 wk after infection, respectively. The kinetics of appearance of CCA were thus related to the intensity of infection. The level of resistance developed by female C57BL/6 mice upon immunization with irradiated cercariae, as expressed by both worm burden and CCA levels after cercarial challenge was evaluated. Immunization conferred 44% protection against the challenge infection, and the level of CCA detected in the sera of the control group was significantly (P less than 0.02) higher than that found in the sera of the immunized group, 6 wk after challenge. These results demonstrate that CCA detection by the 5H11 mAb antigen-capture sandwich ELISA can reflect vaccine-induced resistance against S. mansoni. Localization studies showed that 5H11 reacts with a CCA epitope in the adult worm gut and to a lesser extent with the male tegument. Adaptations of this and other antigen detection systems may prove useful in monitoring the efficacy of developmental vaccines, an ability that may be essential for the extension of such studies to humans.