The development and evaluation of a multi-epitope antigen as a serodiagnostic marker of Toxoplasma gondii infection

Background. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a ubiquitous protozoan parasite which causes a serious disease called toxoplasmosis. The high prevalence of T. gondii infection has attracted a great deal of interest in its diagnosis and treatment. The use of pure antigens shows high sensitivity and specificity, but challenges such as cross-reactivity remain diagnostic difficulties. Objectives. The aim of this study was to use 3 surface antigens (SAGs) of T. gondii to design gene-encoding a multi-epitope and immunogenic protein as a serodiagnostic marker. Material and methods. The multi-epitope antigen was expressed using Esthetic No coli BL21 (DE3) cells and purified using affinity chromatography. To evaluate acute toxoplasmosis, 95 human sera with anti-T gondii IgG, 25 human sera without anti-T gondii IgG and 6 serum samples with nosocomial infections were collected and submitted to an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis. The potential of purified protein as a diagnostic marker of T. gondii infection was also investigated using ELISA analysis. Results. The western blot analysis for both protein expression and purification confirmed that the protein was expressed and purified successfully. The results of validation showed a sensitivity of 72.6% and a specificity of 90.3% for recombinant ELISA. Conclusions. Although this protein showed potential for detecting T. gondii, the sensitivity and specificity were lower than in tests that use the whole body of the parasite.