Expression and Purification of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Antigens for Use in Immunoassays for Serodetection of M. Tuberculosis Infection in TB Patients (Report‪)‬

Byline: Irum Nawaz Awan, Syed Kumail Ali Rizvi, Muhammad Arif Nadeem Saqib, Mirza Imran Shahzad, Aamer Ali Khattak, Sabira Tahseen, Imran Humayun Khan, Resmi Ravindran, Paul A. Luciw and Azra Khanum Abstract.- Tuberculosis (TB) is a fatal and contagious disease. The annual death toll occurring from TB is approximately 2 million according to World Health Organization (WHO). The removal of disease from global face needs immediate treatment for which early diagnosis is pre-requisite. Existing tests for the diagnosis of TB are not efficient and robust. In the present study Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific six antigens namely cfp-10, esat-6 and hspx, along with three antigens which are components of immunodominant mycolyl transferases ag85a, ag85b, ag85c were expressed and purified to evaluate their potential use in immunoassays like Western blotting and multiplex microbead immunoassay. Protein expression of all six antigenic genes was optimized for time and different concentrations of inducer isopropyl b-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside.