Designing a point-of-care detection assay for tuberculosis
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Abstract
The current status of the disease of tuberculosis (TB) demands a rapid, simple and inexpensive point-of-care detection. This study reported the designing of an enzyme linked immunoassay that could detect the antigen lipoarabinomannan (LAM), found to be present in different body fluids of the infected individuals. Initially, a bispecific monoclonal antibody was developed. It was subsequently used to design the sandwich immunoassay using the swabs. The limit of detection for spiked synthetic LAM was found to be 5.0 ng/ml (bovine urine), 0.5 ng/ml (rabbit serum) and 0.005 ng/ml (saline) and that for bacterial LAM from M. tuberculosis H37Rv was found to be 0.5 ng/ml (rabbit serum). Finally the assay was evaluated using the stored clinical samples collected from the TB patients. In addition to good sensitivity, the end point could be read visually within two hours of sample collection.