%A Chiplunkar SV
%A  JLK
%A  SGG
%A Deo MG


%T Immunoreactivity of mycobacterial strain ICRC and <i>Mycobacterium leprae</i> antigens with polyclonal and   monoclonal antibodies

%0 Journal Article

%D 1993

%J International Journal of Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases

%P 0148-916X

%V 61

%N 3

%X ICRC, a cultivable mycobacterium, is undergoing clinical trials as an antileprosy vaccine in India. In the present study, we have investigated the crossreactivity between antigens of the mycobacterial strains of ICRC and <i>Mycobacterium leprae</i> using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies in a radioimmunoprecipitation assay. It was observed that polyclonal anti-ICRC and anti-<i>M. leprae</i> antibodies showed predominant reactivity to a 21-kDa protein of the mycobacterial strain ICRC and the 21- and 14-kDa proteins of <i>M. leprae.</i> Crossreactivity between the antigens of the mycobacterial strains ICRC and <i>M. leprae</i> was established further by using <i>M. leprae-</i>specific monoclonal antibody WML06 (reacting with the 14-kDa protein of <i>M. leprae),</i> which identified the 21- and 14-kDa proteins of the mycobacterial strain ICRC. Thus, our studies demonstrate that the 14-kDa protein of <i>M. leprae</i>, which is known to harbor T- and B-cell epitopes, shares crossreactive antigenic determinants with the 21 - and 14-kDa proteins of the mycobacterial strain ICRC. We believe that such proteins may provide important reagents for designing subunit vaccines and for determining skin-test reagents.