Identification and analysis of immunoreactive proteins of in human sera and stool specimens.

Background: The method currently available to diagnose shigellosis is insensitive and has many limitations. Thus, this study was designed to identify specific antigenic protein(s) among the cell surface associated proteins (SAPs) of that would be valuable in the development of an alternative diagnostic assay for shigellosis, particularly one that could be run using a stool sample rather than serum.

Methods: The SAPs of clinical isolates of S. , , and were extracted from an overnight culture grown at 37 °C using acidified-glycine extraction methods. Protein profiles were observed by SDS-PAGE. To determine if antibodies specific to certain SAPs were present in both sera and stool suspensions, Western blot analysis was used to detect the presence of IgA, IgG, and IgM.

Results: Immunoblot analysis revealed that sera from patients infected with . recognized 31 proteins. These SAP antigens are recognized by the host humoral response during infection. Specific antibodies against these antigens were also observed in intestinal secretions of shigellosis patients. Of these 31 proteins, the 35 kDa protein specifically reacted against IgA present in patients' stool suspensions. Further study illustrated the immunoreactivity of this protein in , and . This is the first report that demonstrates the presence of immunoreactive SAPs in stool suspensions. The SAPSs could be very useful in developing a simple and rapid serodiagnostic assay for shigellosis directly from stool specimens.