Saint Louis University Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
Abstract
The ability of 17 recombinant mycobacterial proteins, native antigen 85 complex, lipoarabinomannan (LAM), and Mycobacterium tuberculosis lysate to detect antibody responses induced by bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination and active tuberculosis infection were studied in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Only LAM-reactive serum immunoglobulin G responses were significantly increased in both BCG-vaccinated patients and patients with active tuberculosis (P<.05), and oral BCG vaccination also induced significant increases in LAM-reactive secretory immunoglobulin A (P<.05). LAM-reactive antibody assays can serve as markers of humoral and mucosal immunity in future trials of BCG and newer attenuated mycobacterial vaccines.