The immunodiagnostic potential of a FAST-ELISA for the detection of antibodies in fasciolosis with sera from 6-12 year old children from Cajamarca, Peru was examined. Four children negative parasitologically were negative by FAST-ELISA. All 13 children found positive parasitologically were also positive by FAST-ELISA for 100% sensitivity. Twelve of the 13 infected children seroreverted 4 months post dihydroemetine therapy showing lower antibody levels as compared with the pretreatment sample. These results suggest that FAST-ELISA may be useful for the determination of infection and success of therapy in children with fasciolosis.

Se estudio el potencial inmunodiagnóstico de un FAST-ELISA para la detección de anticuerpos contra de fasciolosis en niños de Cajamarca, Perú. Sueros de 4 niños no infectados fueron negativos mientras que 13 niños infectados fueron positivos a la prueba de FAST-ELISA. Doce de los niños infectados serorevirtieron con disminución de anticuerpos cuatro meses luego de terapia con dehidroemetina. Estos resultados indican la utilidad de la prueba de FAST-ELISA para detección de infección y predicción de cura en niños con fasciolosis.

Vaccines in schistosomiasis using homologous antigens have been studied extensively in experimentally infected mammalian hosts. Vaccines using heterologous antigens have received comparatively less attention. This review summarizes recent work on a heterologous 12 kDa Fasciola hepatica antigenic polypeptide which cross reacts with Schistosoma mansoni. A cDNA has been cloned and sequenced, and the predicted amino acid sequence of the recombinant protein has been shown to have significant (44) identity with a 14 kDa S. mansoni fatty acid binding protein. Thus in the parasitic trematodes fatty acid binding proteins may be potential vaccine candidates. The F. hepatica recombinant protein has been overexpressed and purified and denoted rFh15. Preliminary rFh15 migrates more slowly (i.e. may be slightly larger) than nFh12 on SDS-PAGE and has a predicted pI of 6.01 vs. observed pI of 5.45. Mice infected with F. hepatica develop antibodies to nFh12 by 2 weeks of infection vs. 6 weeks of infection to rFh15; on the other hand, mice with schistosomiasis mansoni develop antibodies to both nFh12 and rFh15 by 6 weeks of infection. Both the F. hepatica and S. mansoni cross-reactive antigens may be cross-protective antigens with the protection inducing capability against both species.