Identification of a diagnostic antibody-binding region on the immunogenic protein EpC1 from Echinococcus granulosus and its application in population screening for cystic echinococcosis.

An Echinococcus granulosus cDNA sequence coding for EpC1, a proven serodiagnostic marker for cystic echinococcosis (CE, hydatid disease), has high amino acid sequence identity to a paralogue from Taenia solium, the cause of neurocysticercosis (NCC). To determine diagnostic antibody-binding regions on EpC1 recognized specifically by CE sera, 10 truncated regions (P1-10) of the immunogenic protein were expressed in Escherichia coli and subjected to immunoblotting. One peptide, designated peptide 5 [P5, fused with glutathione-S-transferase (GST)] was positively recognized by sera from mice experimentally infected with oncospheres of E. granulosus and sera from surgically confirmed CE patients. Sera from NCC patients did not react with any of the peptides used. There are four amino acid substitutions in P5 compared with the T. solium sequence and these may form part of the epitope inducing CE-specific antibody. Ninety-seven per cent (58 of 60) of sera from confirmed CE patients recognized P5-GST, which was higher than the parent EpC1 fused with GST which reacted with 92% (55 of 60) of the sera. A population screening survey showed that 424 human sera collected from communities in Xinjiang, an area in China endemic for CE, exhibited 4.5% and 3.3% positivity in immunoblotting analysis to EpC1 and P5, respectively; 19.8% of these sera reacted positively against hydatid cyst fluid (HCF) antigen B. Low numbers of surgical CE cases have been reported from this population, suggesting that HCF-based serology lacks specificity and that EpC1 or its contained P5 peptide may prove more accurate for seroepidemiological surveys of CE.