Innovative antigens for more accurate diagnosis of Q fever

IF 1.9 4区生物学 Q4 BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS

Journal of microbiological methods Pub Date : 2025-03-13 DOI:10.1016/j.mimet.2025.107106

Katarína Palkovicová , Gabriela Flores-Ramírez , Marco Quevedo-Diaz , Frantisek Csicsay , Ludovít Skultety

{"title":"Innovative antigens for more accurate diagnosis of Q fever","authors":"Katarína Palkovicová , Gabriela Flores-Ramírez , Marco Quevedo-Diaz , Frantisek Csicsay , Ludovít Skultety","doi":"10.1016/j.mimet.2025.107106","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Coxiella burnetii</em>, the causative agent of Q fever, poses a significant public health concern worldwide. Diagnosis primarily relies on serological tests. Traditional antigen production methods, typically involving embryonated hen eggs, are labor-intensive, costly, and require biosafety level 3 facilities. In this study, we tested inactivated whole-cell antigens (SAP9 and NMII/AP9) from <em>C. burnetii</em> strains grown in axenic media, offering a safer and more efficient alternative to egg-based production. These antigens were validated using an <em>in-house</em> ELISA method against human patient sera, demonstrating high sensitivity and specificity comparable to ELISA and to the Gold Standard, IFA commercial kits. Notably SAP9 and NMII/AP9 antigens showed no cross-reactivity with intracellular pathogens that cause illness with similar symptoms. This approach represents significant advancement in diagnostic antigen production for Q fever, facilitating cost-effective epidemiological studies and enhancing laboratory safety.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of microbiological methods","volume":"232 ","pages":"Article 107106"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of microbiological methods","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167701225000223","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever, poses a significant public health concern worldwide. Diagnosis primarily relies on serological tests. Traditional antigen production methods, typically involving embryonated hen eggs, are labor-intensive, costly, and require biosafety level 3 facilities. In this study, we tested inactivated whole-cell antigens (SAP9 and NMII/AP9) from C. burnetii strains grown in axenic media, offering a safer and more efficient alternative to egg-based production. These antigens were validated using an in-house ELISA method against human patient sera, demonstrating high sensitivity and specificity comparable to ELISA and to the Gold Standard, IFA commercial kits. Notably SAP9 and NMII/AP9 antigens showed no cross-reactivity with intracellular pathogens that cause illness with similar symptoms. This approach represents significant advancement in diagnostic antigen production for Q fever, facilitating cost-effective epidemiological studies and enhancing laboratory safety.

查看原文本刊更多论文

创新抗原，更准确地诊断 Q 热。

伯纳蒂克希菌是Q热的病原体，在全世界引起了重大的公共卫生关注。诊断主要依靠血清学检测。传统的抗原生产方法通常涉及有胚胎的鸡蛋，是劳动密集型的，成本高昂，并且需要生物安全3级设施。在这项研究中，我们测试了在无菌培养基中生长的伯氏梭菌菌株的灭活全细胞抗原（SAP9和NMII/AP9），为鸡蛋生产提供了一种更安全、更有效的替代方法。这些抗原使用内部ELISA方法对人类患者血清进行验证，显示出与ELISA和金标准IFA商用试剂盒相当的高灵敏度和特异性。值得注意的是，SAP9和NMII/AP9抗原与引起类似症状的细胞内病原体无交叉反应性。这种方法在Q热诊断抗原生产方面取得了重大进展，促进了具有成本效益的流行病学研究并加强了实验室安全。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of microbiological methods 生物-生化研究方法

CiteScore

4.30

自引率

4.50%

发文量

151

审稿时长

29 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Microbiological Methods publishes scholarly and original articles, notes and review articles. These articles must include novel and/or state-of-the-art methods, or significant improvements to existing methods. Novel and innovative applications of current methods that are validated and useful will also be published. JMM strives for scholarship, innovation and excellence. This demands scientific rigour, the best available methods and technologies, correctly replicated experiments/tests, the inclusion of proper controls, calibrations, and the correct statistical analysis. The presentation of the data must support the interpretation of the method/approach. All aspects of microbiology are covered, except virology. These include agricultural microbiology, applied and environmental microbiology, bioassays, bioinformatics, biotechnology, biochemical microbiology, clinical microbiology, diagnostics, food monitoring and quality control microbiology, microbial genetics and genomics, geomicrobiology, microbiome methods regardless of habitat, high through-put sequencing methods and analysis, microbial pathogenesis and host responses, metabolomics, metagenomics, metaproteomics, microbial ecology and diversity, microbial physiology, microbial ultra-structure, microscopic and imaging methods, molecular microbiology, mycology, novel mathematical microbiology and modelling, parasitology, plant-microbe interactions, protein markers/profiles, proteomics, pyrosequencing, public health microbiology, radioisotopes applied to microbiology, robotics applied to microbiological methods,rumen microbiology, microbiological methods for space missions and extreme environments, sampling methods and samplers, soil and sediment microbiology, transcriptomics, veterinary microbiology, sero-diagnostics and typing/identification.