We aimed to evaluate whether the occurrence of cryptic species of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, S1, PS2, PS3 and Paracoccidioides lutzii, has implications in the immunodiagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM). Small quantities of the antigen gp43 were found in culture filtrates of P. lutzii strains and this molecule appeared to be more variable within P. lutzii because the synonymous-nonsynon...

Introduction: The first international meeting on new biomarkers and tools for the immunodiagnosis of M. tuberculosis infection and disease, entitled objective of the conference was to integrate the most recent knowledge generated through basic, translational, and clinical research that could lead to novel, improved immunodiagnostic tools for tuberculosis (TB). About 150 researchers from academi...

The persistence of the tuberculosis epidemic depends upon ongoing transmission from undetected and untreated cases. Unfortunately, though high cure rates have now been achieved in many countries, globally case detection is delayed and incomplete, both because diagnostic testing is relatively hard to access, and because it relies on inadequate technologies. Fewer than half of all TB cases are th...

The leucocyte adherence inhibition test provides a rapid, reliable, and specific technique for the immunodiagnosis of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (malignant hepatoma). The patient's blood leucocytes are tested in vitro for cell-mediated immunity against tumour-associated antigens and the serum is tested for blocking factor which interferes with the immunological reaction. Specific reactivi...

We read with interest the article by Dheda et al who followed our approach for a rapid diagnosis of smear-negative tuberculosis by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) in a country of high tuberculosis incidence, including individuals with HIV-1 infection. The authors report a sensitivity of 88.9% and specificity of 94.7% of the BAL ELISpot (T-SPOT.TB test) for the di...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is the causative agent of primary atypical pneumonia in humans. Adherence of M. pneumoniae to host cells requires several adhesin proteins, such as P1, P30, and P116. A major limitation in developing a specific diagnostic test for M. pneumoniae is the inability to express adhesin proteins in heterologous expression systems due to unusual usage of the UGA stop codon, leadin...

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is the most common parasitic disease of the central nervous system and is caused by larvae of the tapeworm Taenia solium. NCC is endemic in almost all developing countries. It presents as intraparenchymal forms associated with seizures or as extraparenchymal forms associated with intracranial hypertension. The clinical and epidemiological suspicion are important but the...