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The increased incidence of healthcare-related

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the spirochete of genus Leptospira with widespread distribution in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. Leptospirosis is often confused with other febrile illnesses including jaundice, dengue, and malaria. Generally, the disease is often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Though leptospirosis is curable with antibiotic treatment, the laboratory diagnosis of the disease is specialized and open to interpretation with multiple kits available to detect the different serological markers of Leptospira. Moreover, when leptospirosis is misdiagnosed, the disease can lead to multi-organ failure and may have fatal effects. There is a need for strategies to develop vaccines and prevent leptospirosis. In the present study, the immunogenic potential of leptospiral recombinant protein LipL21 (rLipL21) and its truncated form I-LipL21 (rI-LipL21) was evaluated. Methodology: The recombinant proteins were established in cyclophosphamide treated BALB/c mice model infected with L. interrogans serovar Autumnalis strain N2. Results: The vaccination study showed 66% and 83% survivability among mice immunized with rLipL21 and rI-LipL21 respectively and post-challenge with leptospiral strain N2 compared to control groups that showed 100% lethality. Additionally, a significant increase in antibody levels and cytokine levels (TNF-a, IFN-γ and IL-10) was observed evidencing a marked stimulation of both humoral and cell-mediated immune response in mice immunized with rLipL21/rI-LipL21 compared to whole cell leptospiral lysate (WCL). Conclusions: This study evidenced protective immunization against leptospirosis with rLipL21 and rI-LipL21 recombinant proteins and are potential candidates for the development of leptospiral vaccine.

Leptospirosis is a widespread zoonotic disease and lacks in efficient diagnostic tools. In the present study, a nanogold based dot blot immunoassay was developed and evaluated for the detection of leptospirosis in human urine samples. This method was found to be rapid (4 h) with higher sensitivity (4.2-14.6%) than horse radish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated dot blot assay.

Leptospiral outer membrane protein LipL21 and its truncated N-terminal immunogenic region (I-LipL21) were evaluated for diagnosis of leptospirosis. The complete coding sequence of LipL21 nucleotide sequence was subjected to BCPred and VaxiJen analysis for determination of B cell specific immunogenic epitopes. Epitope1 ACS STD TGQ KDA TTV GDG (1.8837), Epitope2 WGG PPE QRN DGK TPR DTN (0.9483), Epitope3 VKG VGV YEC KAT GSG SDP (1.4077) and Epitope4 NEW ECQ CVI YAK FPG GKD (0.4462) were predicted. LipL21 and N-terminal fragment having B-cell specific epitopes with higher VaxiJen score >0.9 as truncated I-LipL21 were cloned independently in pET15b and expressed in Escherichia coli. IgM ELISA and dot blot assay was performed for sera samples collected from Delhi-NCR for leptospiral whole cell lysate (WCL), recombinant LipL21 and I-LipL21. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were found to be 92.5%, 92.8%, 83.3%, and 97% respectively for recombinant I-LipL21 by IgM-ELISA. 11⿿14.8% increased sensitivity was observed over LipL21 and WCL. The I-LipL21 dot blot assay showed a further increased sensitivity of 3.8% over the IgM-ELISA. Therefore I-LipL21 may be the ideal candidate protein for diagnosis of leptospirosis.

Pathogenic Leptospira species are important human and animal pathogen that causes leptospirosis, with more than half a million cases reported annually but little is known regarding the true incidence of leptospirosis due to the limitations in diagnosis. Proteins embedded in the outer membrane are found to be prime drug targets due to its key role as receptors for cellular communication and gatekeepers for iron and substrate transport across cell membranes. The major key issues to be addressed to overcome the disease burden of leptospirosis are: need to identify the genes that turn on in vivo; development of rapid diagnostic methods to facilitate the early diagnosis and to develop a universal vaccine. Recent whole genome sequencing of Leptospira species and development of in silico analysis tools have led to the identification of a large number of leptospiral virulence genes, metabolic pathways and surface protein secretion systems that represent potential new targets for the development of anti-leptospiral drug, vaccine and diagnostic strategies. This review surveys the different types of outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of Leptospira and combines all the novel features of OMPs reported till date and put forth some views for future research.

Leptospirosis, a zoonosis of global importance and it is underreported in India and more than 50,000 severe cases are reported each year. Here we present the evaluation of 16S rRNA based nested PCR assay for the rapid identification of human leptospires using serum and urine samples. The study includes 261 suspected cases for leptospirosis with different clinical manifestations. 16S rRNA based nested PCR assay was compared and evaluated against the conventional serological methods such as MAT and ELISA. The technique enabled amplification of a 289bp product with notable percentage of positivity in all sample groups including 94.8 in pediatric cases, 93 in pregnant women, 94.2 in renal failure, 87.8 in jaundice and 94.6 in common febrile cases. The sensitivity and specificity was 94.4% and 100%, respectively. The technique proved to be prompt and effective for the diagnosis of leptospiral infection at the acute phase of the disease. PCR based approach detects leptospiral DNA from the clinical samples both at the acute and leptospiruria phase on comparison with its counter parts where detection is made possible only after 7days or 7–30days post-infection. In this regard PCR based diagnosis of leptospirosis should be made available for clinicians for the early diagnosis and prompt treatment of the disease.