Provided herein, inter alia, are compositions and methods of using the same for detecting complement activation.

A method for detection of antibodies in a biological sample. The method includes steps of: immobilizing antigens specific to the antibodies between at least two electrodes; binding the antibodies from the biological sample to the antigens; binding probes linked with an enzyme to the antibodies; exposing the enzyme to a metal substrate; depositing a metal layer based on exposing the enzyme to the metal substrate; measuring an electrical property of the metal layer between a first electrode of the at least two electrodes and a second electrode of the at least two electrodes; and detecting, based on measuring the electrical property of the metal layer, the antibodies in the biological sample.

There is provided a skin test diagnostic reagent comprising: at least one 40mer polypeptide consisting of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 1, 3 or 4; at least one 40mer polypeptide consisting of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 7 or 8; and at least one 40mer polypeptide consisting of any one of SEQ ID NOs: 10, 11 or 12, characterised in that the reagent elicits a positive result when administered in a skin test to an animal infected with Mycobacterium bovis or Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The invention relates to an ex vivo method for detecting or monitoring the progression of a chronic autoimmune disease, in a sample of human or animal biological fluid, by immunoassay for the presence of antibodies in the sample, including at least: one or more antibodies directed against at least one enterobacterium, and one or more antibodies directed against a product at the origin of or resulting from lipoperoxidation and/or one or more antibodies directed against a nitrated or nitrosylated product.

The invention also relates to a kit for implementing such a method.

The present invention broadly provides different compositions, kits, vectors, and methods including monoclonal antibodies directed to epitopes found within lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannoside 6 (PIM6) for the diagnosis and treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.

An object of the present invention is to provide an immunochromatographic kit and a method, which are capable of detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis with high-sensitivity and specificity. According to the present invention, an immunochromatographic kit for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis is provided, the kit including: a label substance modified with a first antibody against lipoarabinomannan; a porous carrier having a reaction site holding a second antibody against lipoarabinomannan; a compound containing silver; and a reducing agent reducing silver ions, in which at least one of the first antibody or the second antibody is a monoclonal antibody.

A method of identifying a Mycobacterium using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), disclosed herein, comprises disposing a sample suspected to comprise a Mycobacterium on a SERS-active substrate, detecting surface enhanced Raman signals corresponding to an alpha-mycolic acid, a methoxy-mycolic acid, and a keto-mycolic acid from the sample disposed on the SERS-active substrate, and determining one or more ratios of intensity of the surface enhanced Raman signals to identify the Mycobacterium. Disclosed herein also includes a method of detecting a mycobacterial disease using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), the method comprising identifying a Mycobacterium according to the method described above, and determining the mycobacterial disease based on the Mycobacterium identified.

Immobilising isolated mycolic acid antigens of tuberculous mycobacterial origin or a synthetic analogue thereof on a screen-printed electrode by binding of the antigens to a self-assembled monolayer comprising a thiolated hydrophobic substance to produce immobilized mycolic acids antigens in the form of a mycolic acid antigen-containing self-assembled monolayer coating on a surface of the electrode.

A device for rapid detection of a tuberculosis lipoarabinomannan (TB-LAM) is provided. The device includes a pre-concentrator unit for concentrating the TB-LAM comprising: an ion-exchange medium comprising one or more ligands configured to capture the TB-LAM from the source biological sample, wherein the captured-TB-LAM is eluted from the ion-exchange medium as an eluate comprising a concentrated form of TB-LAM; a cassette; a lateral flow assay unit disposed in the cassette; and an integration unit attached to the pre-concentrator unit and the cassette. The integration unit is configured to operatively couple and de-couple the pre-concentrator unit and the cassette. The pre-concentrator unit and the lateral flow assay unit disposed in the cassette are in a fluidic communication in a coupled form. The device for rapid detection of TB-LAM further comprises a dilutor unit.

The present invention refers to the use of gene sequences or portions thereof characterized in that the same belong to the classes of in vitro and ex vivo induced, repressed or conserved genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis currently infected human macrophages and to corresponding peptides or consensus peptides or proteins for the preparation of specific bio-markers for the diagnosis and prevention of active or latent disease.