Cross reactivity of S. aureus to murine cytokine assays: A source of discrepancy.

Numan Javed (1) , Guang Xue (1) , Ailing Lu (1) , Yue Xing (1) , Yoichiro Iwakura (2) , Hui Xiao (1) , Hervé Lecoeur (1, 3) , Gerald F Späth (3) , Guangxun Meng (1)

1 Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology [Shanghai, China]
2 Division of Experimental Animal Immunology, Center for Animal Disease Models [Japan]
3 Parasitologie moléculaire et Signalisation / Molecular Parasitology and Signaling

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the versatile Gram positive bacteria causing a range of diseases. Upon challenge, host immune cells recognize S. aureus and mount diverse immune responses including production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and TNF-α. These cytokines are important mediators of inflammation which can be detected via various immunological methods such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoblotting. In the current study, we found that a number of clinical isolates as well as laboratory strains of S. aureus exhibited cross reactivity with ELISA antibodies for murine IL-1β and TNF-α assays. This cross reactivity generates exaggerated false positive signals which can be a source of discrepancy for the understanding of real immune responses against S. aureus infection by host immune cells.

Keywords: TNF-α; S. aureus; Inflammasome; IL-1β; Cross reactivity

Domains: Microbiology and Parasitology

Numan Javed, Guang Xue, Ailing Lu, Yue Xing, Yoichiro Iwakura, et al.. Cross reactivity of S. aureus to murine cytokine assays: A source of discrepancy.. Cytokine, 2016, 81, pp.101-108. ⟨10.1016/j.cyto.2016.03.007⟩. ⟨pasteur-01441010⟩