[Evaluation of the usefulness of selected antigens of Mycoplasma pneumoniae for the serodiagnosis of mycoplasmosis].

A panel of 33 different antigens, among them lipoproteins, glicolipids and proteins, of Mycoplasma pneumoniae used in commercial western-blotting (Virotech) were assessed for reactivity with sera of patients with mycoplasmosis and other bacterial infections of variable etiology. In addition, commercial ELISA (Virotech) with recombinant proteins as antigen and complement fixation test (CFT) with in-house prepared glicolipid-protein antigen were also assessed for comparison. The proteins with molecular weight of 170 kDa (P1) and 90 kDa (P90) were most recognized by the serum samples of patients with mycoplasmosis. The reactions of proteins P50, P47 and Fts monomer with positive sera were not such often and the response was usually weak. The other proteins of M. pneumoniae, particularly P88, Repet. Prot. or P20, were recognized occasionally or at all. We observed also the often reactions ofglicolipids of M. pneumoniae with IgM antibodies. The result of the study showed that the commercial ELISA (Virotech) was equivalent in sensitivity and specificity to the CFT in the case of sera obtained in the acute phase of mycoplasmosis (90.7% of agreement of results in the class IgA, 85.6% in the class IgG and 100% in the class IgM). Analytical specificity studied by screening serum samples from patients with different bacterial infections and blood donors have shown lower specificity of ELISA in compared to western-blotting. The present study confirmed the earlier observations of the high usefulness of P1 protein and P90 protein for reliable serologic diagnosis of acute M. pneumoniae infection.