Modification on Direct Agglutination Antigen Preparation for Simplified Sero-Diagnosis of Human and Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis

Abstract

Background: Visceral leishmaniasis is systematic serous parasitic disease with pub­lic health importance. Zoonotic form of visceral leishmaniasis is wide spread in Mediterranean basin and South America regions. Direct agglutination test (DAT) is an accurate, reliable and non-expensive serological test for the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in human and canines but the antigen preparation involves some limita­tions. This study aimed to compare the conventional production of DAT anti­gen with our modified DAT antigen and then assessed on human and dog pooled sera. Methods: Conventional DAT antigen has been prepared at the School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and some modifications were car­ried out on it, which named as modified DAT antigen. Three positive and one nega­tive human and dog pooled serum were separately used for the comparison of modified DAT with conventional DAT antigen batches with one-month interval for a period of 9 months. Results: A good concordance was observed between modified DAT compared to conventional DAT antigens for the detection of visceral leishmaniasis on human (100%) and dog (94.4%) pooled sera, respectively. Conclusion: Since the modified DAT antigen could be reduced the preparation time from 3 days to several hours and a good degree of agreement was found between modified DAT and convention DAT antigen batches, it can be used as a simple and easy tool for screening and serodiagnosis of human and canine L. infan­tum infection.