New diagnostic antigens for early trichinellosis: the excretory-secretory antigens of Trichinella spiralis intestinal infective larvae

The excretory-secretory (ES) antigens from Trichinella spiralis muscle larvae (ML) are the most commonly used diagnostic antigens for trichinellosis, but anti-Trichinella IgG antibodies cannot be detected until 2-3 weeks after infection; there is an obvious window period between Trichinella infection and antibody positivity. Intestinal infective larvae (IIL) are the first invasive stage during Trichinella infection, and their ES antigens are firstly exposed to the immune system and might be the early diagnostic markers of trichinellosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the early diagnostic values of IIL ES antigens for trichinellosis. The IIL were collected from intestines of infected mice at 6 h postinfection (hpi), and IIL ES antigens were prepared by incubation for 18 h. Anti-Trichinella IgG antibodies in mice infected with 100 ML were detectable by ELISA with IIL ES antigens as soon as 10 days postinfection (dpi), but ELISA with ML ES antigens did not permit detection of infected mice before 12 dpi. When the sera of patients with trichinellosis at 19 dpi were assayed, the sensitivity (100 %) of ELISA with IIL ES antigens was evidently higher than 75 % of ELISA with ML ES antigens (P < 0.05) The specificity (96.86 %) of ELISA with IIL ES antigens was also higher than 89.31 % of ELISA with ML ES antigens (P < 0.05). The IIL ES antigens provided a new source of diagnostic antigens and could be considered as a potential early diagnostic antigen for trichinellosis.