Monoclonal antibodies against Malaysian Blastocystis hominis isolates

Abstract

The immunoblotting technique was used with six monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to analyze the antigenic profiles of 10 Blastocystis hominis isolates [C, H, H6, H7, KP1, Y51, DJ1, RN, 27B05(1), M12] in relation to studies on the pathogenicity of this parasites. MAb RN5-8-5 specifically recognized B. hominis isolated from patients with clinical symptoms while MAbs 4F2-1 and 4C4-2 were also potentially useful for this purpose. The other three MAbs (DJ-9, 9D3-3 and Y44F4) recognized B. hominis isolates recovered from both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, as well as cross reacted with Escherichia coli and Endolimax nana. All these MAbs did not react with Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia.