Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Abstract

Comparative sensitivities of various tests for diagnosing early Schistosoma mansoni infection in mice

Mahmoud Mohamed Bahgat, Abduallh M. Ibrahim, Amany Sayed Maghraby, Maha Rizk and Rehab Abdel Megeed

Objective: We compared the diagnostic values of cercarial antigen preparation, cercarial secretions, soluble worm antigen preparation and worm vomit prepared from the parasite Schistosoma mansoni. Methods: Enzyme linked immunosorbant assay was used to detect IgG in plasma from Schistosoma mansoni infected mice. In parallel, specific primers for the parasite genome was used to detect S. mansoni DNA in plasma and urine from infected mice and hemolymph and tissues of infected Biomphalaria alexandrina snails by Polymerase chain reaction. Results: The results showed that all the above diagnostic approaches enabled infection to be diagnosed as early as three days post mice exposure to parasite cercariae. Conclusion: Cercarial secretions and worm vomit represent new useful economic crude antigens for preliminary detection of parasite active transmission or response to therapy in an endemic setting. Also, it was found that the detection of Schistosoma mansoni DNA in urine from infected mice was the most sensitive and specific (although expensive) method for infection diagnosis than all the others.