Ciencia Puerto Rico

There is a need to develop an effective diagnostic test for Leptospirosis. Vircell, SL an me take the task to develop a reliable and effective test for diagnosis. The Proteomic Department decided to develop a recombinant antigen in its native form known as LipL32. This membrane protein has been expressed in heterologous system specific fused with the tags (Hisx6 and GST) for the increase of the purification performance, the ease of production and more effctive cost. This protein was purified by affinity chromatography, glutathione and Ni2 +. The recombinant antigen obtained was preliminarily evaluated by CLIA to confirm the presence of epitopes that allow discrimination between positive and negative sera to this infection. A cell extract was made with different detergents, the same purpose of the recombinant protein was also used. One of the procedures obtained satisfactory results, this was the one that had the native protein. Moreover, the recombinant antigen worked successfully, but it wasn’t effective enough to be used in a diagnostic test.