Further information for the sample IGG:

The DEMEDITEC Mycobacterium tuberculosis IgG antibody ELISA kit has been designed for the detection and the quantitative determination of specific IgG antibodies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in serum and plasma.

The antigen used for coating the plates are the recombinant antigens 18, 36 and 40 kD. 

Mycobacterioses (tuberculosis, leprosy, atypical mycobacterioses, paratuberculosis, and perhaps Crohn’s Disease) are infectious diseases of both men and animals. The infectious agents of tuberculosis are acid-resistant rod-like formed bacteria of the family Mycobacteriaceae, genus Mycobacterium, identified by Robert Koch in 1882.

Owing to the very high infectivity of pathogenic mycobacteria, early diagnosis is essential to prevent spreading of the disease. Convergence of various approaches are necessary to control the mycobacterioses, immune reactions and bacterial shedding being variable during the diseases. The illness is normally transferred by droplets of saliva from infected persons. However, usual diagnostic procedures were, up to now, unsatisfactory and did not allow different mycobacterial species to be distinguished.

The target of the infections are mostly the lungs, but also other organs like the brain, intestinal tract, bones, lymph nodes and kidneys can be affected. Tuberculosis is not only found in developing countries with 8 million of new infections yearly, but also in industrialized regions, with thousands of cases each year. Without treatment, the disease leads in 50% of the cases to death within less than two years.

Clinical symptoms are fatigue, loss of weight, lack of appetite, light fever, nocturnal sweat and pain in the chest. Patients with HIV are threatened by tuberculosis due to their impaired immune system. A vaccination with living attenuated bacteria is possible (BCG = Bacille Calmette Guérin). This is mostly done with newborn or young children. With older patients, before vaccination,  the tuberculin test is performed (Pirquet or Mantoux), where a small amount of tuberculin is injected under the skin. In a positive case, where antibodies exist against Mycobacteria, vaccination is not necessary. Up to recently, there were no serological methods to detect tuberculosis antibodies. Besides the skin tuberculin test, only the direct microscopical identification of the dyed bacteria in sputum existed. Presently, specific antigens have been prepared either by purification of natural material or by recombinant methods.

This ELISA test kit for the determination of IgG antibodies uses a cocktail of highly pure proteins in order to determine an immune response against the bacteria in human serum. A recent or chronically active infection can be diagnosed by IgA and IgM tests, which are also available.