Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Parasitology 1735-7020 15 1 2020 03 09 1 10 Aliyar MIRZAPOUR Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, International Branch of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran Seyyed Javad SEYYED TABAEI Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mojgan BANDEHPOUR Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Department of Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali HAGHIGHI Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Bahram KAZEMI Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran AND Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2020 03 09 Background: Cystic echinococcosis can cause severe disease and probable death in humans. Epitopes of its antigens play a key role in the sensitivity and specificity of immunodiagnostic tests. Methods: Epitope prediction software programs predict the most antigenic linear B-cell epitopes of AgB (8 kD), Ag5, and Ag95. Six such epitopes were predicted and connected by “Gly-Ser” linker and synthesized. The purity of the concentrated recombinant multi-epitope protein was assessed by 15% SDS-PAGE. Overall, 186 serum samples were collected from the Loghman Hakim Hospital and different laboratories, Tehran, Iran, from July 2016 to February 2017. Patients infected with hepatic hydatid cysts, patients infected by other parasites and viruses, and healthy individuals were used to detect the anti-CE IgG using recombinant multi-epitope protein. Results: Forty-one samples out of 43 cases of hydatidosis were diagnosed correctly as positive, and two were negative. In addition, six negative cases of healthy individual group were diagnosed as positive and negative with rMEP-ELISA and the commercial kit, respectively. Therefore, these six samples were considered as false positive using our method. In addition, a diagnostic sensitivity of 95.3% (95% CI, 84.19% to 99.43%) and a specificity of 95.0% (95% CI, 89.43% to 98.14%) were obtained using optimum cutoff value (0.20). The sensitivity and specificity of the commercial kit was 100%. Conclusion: Our findings showed high diagnostic accuracy of the ELISA test using the developed recombinant protein, which encourages the use of this recombinant multi-epitope protein for rapid serological diagnosis of hydatidosis. https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/view/2824 https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/download/2824/1005