A Novel Sensitive Immunoassay Targeting the 5-Methylthio-d-Xylofuranose–Lipoarabinomannan Epitope Meets the WHO's Performance Target for Tuberculosis …

GB Sigal, A Pinter, TL Lowary… - Journal of clinical …, 2018 - Am Soc Microbiol
GB Sigal, A Pinter, TL Lowary, M Kawasaki, A Li, A Mathew, M Tsionsky, RB Zheng…
Journal of clinical microbiology, 2018Am Soc Microbiol
The only currently commercialized point-of-care assay for tuberculosis (TB) that measures
lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in urine (Alere LF-LAM) has insufficient sensitivity. We evaluated
the potential of 100 novel monoclonal antibody pairs targeting a variety of LAM epitopes on
a sensitive electrochemiluminescence platform to improve the diagnostic accuracy. In the
screening, many antibody pairs showed high reactivity to purified LAM but performed poorly
at detecting urinary LAM in clinical samples, suggesting differences in antigen structure and …
Abstract
The only currently commercialized point-of-care assay for tuberculosis (TB) that measures lipoarabinomannan (LAM) in urine (Alere LF-LAM) has insufficient sensitivity. We evaluated the potential of 100 novel monoclonal antibody pairs targeting a variety of LAM epitopes on a sensitive electrochemiluminescence platform to improve the diagnostic accuracy. In the screening, many antibody pairs showed high reactivity to purified LAM but performed poorly at detecting urinary LAM in clinical samples, suggesting differences in antigen structure and immunoreactivity of the different LAM sources. The 12 best antibody pairs from the screening were tested in a retrospective case-control study with urine samples from 75 adults with presumptive TB. The best antibody pair reached femtomolar analytical sensitivity for LAM detection and an overall clinical sensitivity of 93% (confidence interval [CI], 80% to 97%) and specificity of 97% (CI, 85% to 100%). Importantly, in HIV-negative subjects positive for TB by sputum smear microscopy, the test achieved a sensitivity of 80% (CI, 55% to 93%). This compares to an overall sensitivity of 33% (CI, 20% to 48%) of the Alere LF-LAM and a sensitivity of 13% (CI, 4% to 38%) in HIV-negative subjects in the same sample set. The capture antibody targets a unique 5-methylthio-d-xylofuranose (MTX)-dependent epitope in LAM that is specific to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and shows no cross-reactivity with fast-growing mycobacteria or other bacteria. The present study provides evidence that improved assay methods and reagents lead to increased diagnostic accuracy. The results of this work have informed the development of a sensitive and specific novel LAM point-of-care assay with the aim to meet the WHO's performance target for TB diagnosis.
American Society for Microbiology