EVALUATION OF ANTIBODY RESPONSE AND ANTIGENIC CHARACTERIZATION OF TOXOPLASMA GONDII IN EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED PRIMATES

Abstract

This study investigated the presence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in experimentally infected New World primates, by means of an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for IgG and IgM, and the pattern of polypeptide recognition using Western-blotting. Seven days after infection all primates yielded positive results in both ELISA-IgG and ELISA-IgM. Western blotting documented four major polypeptides with apparent molecular weight of 160, 120, 80 and 35- 30 kDa. The 35-30 kDa polypeptide was identified by antibodies from all infected primates and should be further evaluated for use in specific diagnosis of T. gondii infection.