Comparison between mixed lysate antigen and α-actinin antigen in ELISA for serodiagnosis of trichomoniasis

Abstract The aim of this study was to identify an antigen suitable for ELISA for serodiagnosis of Trichomonas vaginalis ( T. vaginalis ) infection. Mixed lysate antigen (Ag) from eight strains of T. vaginalis and recombinant α-actinin protein was compared. The sera of three groups were examined by ELISA: 73 women infected with trichomoniasis served as a positive control, 31 male volunteers as a negative control, and 424 women attending an outpatient health screening at Hanyang University Guri Hospital. Based on the cutoff optical density for each Ag obtained with a negative control, the serosensitivity of the mixed lysate Ag (79.5%) was significantly higher than that of the α-actinin (52.1%) in the 73 patients with trichomoniasis. The specificity using lysate Ag and α-actinin was 100% and 96.8%, respectively. On the other hand, the positivity rate in 424 outpatients was 39.2% and 11.8% with mixed lysate and α-actinin Ag, respectively. Taken together, mixed lysate Ag showed higher sensitivity and specificity than α-actinin. Therefore, mixed lysate may be a better Ag than α-actinin for ELISA for the diagnosis of trichomoniasis.