Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
New blood test to detect Toxoplasma infection in cats
By Gao, Yafan et al.·Published in BMC veterinary research·2023·School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, China·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Establishment and application of an iELISA detection method for measuring apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) antibodies of Toxoplasma gondii in cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A new test has been developed to detect Toxoplasma gondii infection in cats, which can pose health risks to humans. This test, called rAMA1-iELISA, can accurately identify antibodies against the parasite in cat blood samples. It showed a high success rate, with 91.7% sensitivity and 93.6% specificity, meaning it can reliably tell if a cat is infected without confusing it with other diseases. This method is promising for quickly diagnosing Toxoplasma infections in cats, helping to manage their health and reduce risks to people.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diseases caused by Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) have introduced serious threats to public health. There is an urgent need to develop a rapid detection method for T. gondii infection in cats, which are definitive hosts. Recombinant apical membrane antigen 1 (rAMA1) was produced in a prokaryotic expression system and used as the detection antigen. The aim of this study was to evaluate and optimize a reliable indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) method based on rAMA1 for the detection of antibodies against T. gondii in cats. RESULTS: The rAMA1-iELISA method was developed and optimized by the chessboard titration method. There were no cross-reactions between T. gondii-positive cat serum and positive serum for other pathogens, indicating that rAMA1-iELISA could only detect T. gondii in most cases. The lowest detection limit of rAMA1-iELISA was 1:3200 (dilution of positive serum), and the CV of repeated tests within batches and between batches were confirmed to be less than 10%. The results of 247 cat serum samples detected by rAMA1-iELISA (kappa value = 0.622, p < 0.001) were in substantial agreement with commercial ELISA. The ROC curve analysis revealed the higher overall check accuracy of rAMA1-iELISA (sensitivity = 91.7%, specificity = 93.6%, AUC = 0.956, 95% CI 0.905 to 1.000) than GRA7-based iELISA (sensitivity = 91.7%, specificity = 85.5%, AUC = 0.936, 95% CI 0.892 to 0.980). Moreover, the positive rate of rAMA1-iELISA (6.5%, 16/247) was higher than that of GRA7-based iELISA (3.6%, 9/247) and that of commercial ELISA kit (4.9%, 12/247). CONCLUSION: The iELISA method with good specificity, sensitivity, and reproducibility was established and can be used for large-scale detection of T. gondii infection in clinical cat samples.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37924072/