Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Parasitology 1735-7020 8 3 2013 09 15 408 416 EN Dan Dan Hu Dept. of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China. Jing Cui Dept. of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China. Li Wang Dept. of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China. Li Na Liu Dept. of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China. Tong Wei Dept. of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China. Zhong Quan Wang Dept. of Parasitology, Medical College, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China. 2015 10 14   Background: Sparganosis is caused by the invasion of Spirometra sparganum into various tissues/organs. Subcutaneous sparganosis can be diagnosed by biopsy, while visceral/cerebral sparganosis is not easy to be diagnosed. The diagnosis de-pends largely on the detection of specific anti-sparganum antibodies. The specific-ity of the ELISA could be increased by using S. mansoni sparganum excretory– secretory (ES) antigens, but it also had the cross-reactions with sera of patients with cysticercosis or paragonimiasis. The aim of this study was to identify early specific diagnostic antigens in S. mansoni sparganum ES proteins. Methods: The sparganum ES proteins were analyzed by two-dimensional electro-phoresis (2-DE) and Western blot probed with early sera from infected mice at 14 days post-infection. The immunoreactive protein spots were characterized by MALDI-TOF/ TOF-MS. Results: A total of approximately 149 proteins spots were detected with isoelectric point (pI) varying from 3 to 7.5 and molecular weight from 20 to 115 kDa and sev-en protein spots with molecular weight of 23-31 kDa were recognized by the infec-tion sera. Three of seven spots were successfully identified and characterized as the same S. mansoni protein (cysteine protease), and the proteins of other 4 spots were not included in the databases. Conclusion: The cysteine protease from S. mansoni ES proteins recognized by early infection sera might be the early diagnostic antigens for sparganosis. https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/view/476 https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/download/476/485