Cryptosporidium ELISA Kit

OTHER NAME:

cryptosporidium water test kit

cryptosporidium testing in water

Storage Instruction: Store the kit at 4°C.

The genus Cryptosporidium belongs to the phylum Apicomplexa, protozoan parasites characterized by secretory cell organells enabling the invasion of host cells. Among different human pathogenic species Cryptosporidium parvum represents the most important cause of diarrhea in man but also in several animal species (Zoonosis).

The transmission of Cryptosporidium is effected by food or drinking water contaminated with feces. Person to person transmission has also been described. After ingestion of the infective stage, the oocyst, the vegetative motile sporozoites will be released in the small intestine, where they invade into the enterocytes and stay in a parasitophorous vacuole beneath the microvilli.

The sporozoites multiply by bisection (asexually) as well as sexually. In the course of sexual multiplication micro- and macrogamonts emerge and fuse to form the infective oocyst. The oocysts can be divided into thin-wall and thick-wall oocysts: the thin-wall oocysts are responsible for autoinfections within the same host whereas the thick-wall oocysts are excreted with the feces and are therefore responsible for transmission to other hosts. The clinical picture of cryptosporidiosis is usually watery self-limiting diarrhea. However immunocompromised persons can develop prolonged and life-threatening diarrhea.

In rare cases, extraintestinal infections of e.g. the respiratory tract or bile-duct have been reported. Cryptosporidium infections are usually diagnosed by direct pathogen detection from faecal specimens either by microscopy of dyed smears, immune fluorescence microscopy or by immunological methods like ELISA. Nucleic acid amplification techniques (PCR) are also established but still restricted to special laboratories.

Enzyme immunoassays used for routine diagnostics are based on mono- or polyclonal antibodies directed to not further characterized antigens derived from the oocyst stage of the parasite. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the determination of human Cryptosporidium parvum in fecal samples. For research use only, not for use in diagnostic procedures.