Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Accurate blood test for diagnosing canine leishmaniasis using
By Ricardo Dias Portela et al.·Published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases·2019·View original on DOAJ →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Leishmania infantum-derived lipophosphoglycan as an antigen in the accurate serodiagnosis of canine leishmaniasis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with leishmaniasis, a serious infection caused by the Leishmania parasite, were tested using a new blood test that checks for a specific protein called lipophosphoglycan (LPG). This test was found to be very accurate, identifying nearly all infected dogs and distinguishing them from healthy dogs and those with other illnesses. The LPG test was more effective than a previous method, showing better results in detecting even mild cases of the disease. This means that veterinarians can use this test to diagnose leishmaniasis more reliably, which is important for treating affected dogs and controlling the disease.
People also search for: dog leishmaniasis symptoms · leishmaniasis blood test for dogs · treatment for dog leishmaniasis
Abstract
Lipophosphoglycan (LPG) is the major surface glycoconjugate of Leishmania protozoan and has an important biological role in host-parasite interactions both in the midgut epithelium of the sand fly vector and in the vertebrate macrophages. Canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is a chronic infectious disease predominantly caused by Leishmania infantum. An early and accurate immunodiagnosis of the disease is crucial for veterinary clinical practice and for disease control. In this work, we evaluated L. infantum LPG as an antigen in an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for CanL immunodiagnosis (LPG-ELISA) by testing serum samples from 97 naturally infected dogs with diverse clinical presentations ranging from subclinical infection to severe disease, as evaluated by veterinarian infectologists. Serum samples from healthy dogs from non-endemic areas (n = 68) and from dogs with other infectious diseases (n = 64) were used as controls for assay validation. The performance of the LPG-ELISA was compared with that of an ELISA using the soluble fraction of L. infantum total lysate antigen (TLA). LPG-ELISA presented a superior performance in comparison to TLA-ELISA, with 91.5% sensitivity, 98.5% specificity and 99.7% accuracy. A distinguishing feature of the LPG-ELISA compared to the TLA-ELISA was its higher ability to identify subclinical infection in clinically healthy dogs, in addition to the absence of cross-reactivity with other canine infectious diseases. Finally, LPG-ELISA was compared to TR DPP visceral canine leishmaniasis test, the immunochromatographic test recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. LPG-ELISA exhibited higher values of specificity (98.5% versus 93.1%) and sensitivity (91.5% versus 90.6%) compared to TR DPP. In conclusion, L. infantum-derived LPG was recognized by antibodies elicited during CanL in different infection stages and was shown to be a suitable antigen for specific clinical settings of veterinary diagnosis and for public health usage.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on DOAJ: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007720