Fig. 3
ELISA analysis. (a) ELISA analysis for the determination of antibody (IgG) levels against HSA, Ara3Man-rHSA and AraMan-rHSA was carried out using samples obtained before and after three rounds of selection against LAM in healthy subjects (CTR) and in TB patients. Absorbance values are the mean of 9 control samples and 11 TB samples in each group. All samples were measured in duplicate and repeated three times. Error bars show standard error of the mean (SEM) for each set of data. *=p ≤ 0.05 by Student’s t-test. The level of antibodies against Ara3Man is very high in TB patients, and is reduced by about 50% in TB patients when LAM post-adsorption serum was tested. (b, c) Detection of anti-LAM antibody level upon 3 bio-panning procedures. The level of specific antibodies against LAM was measured after each bio-panning step. The same sera were tested on three adsorbed LAM plates consecutively (from Plate LAM 1 to Plate LAM 3); the reduction is expressed in OD mean values ± standard error of the mean (SEM) (b) and in percentage (c) of healthy control and TB subjects (b) or only TB (c), respectively. High levels of anti-LAM antibodies are detected in TB patients on bio-panning steps (reduced by about 50% from step 1 to step 3), while no anti-LAM antibodies could be found in healthy controls