Objective: To develop a detection method for Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts from water samples, which combined immunomagnetic separation (IMS) with Taqman real-time PCR (qPCR).
Methods: Conditions of separation and enrichment of IMS method by using specific streptavidin magnetic beads coated with monoclonal antibodies Cp23 directed against C. parvum oocysts were optimized. Special primers of PCR and Taqman probes were designed referring to the 18S rDNA gene of C. parvum (GenBank Accession No. AB513881.1). The conserved genes were amplified from genomic DNA of C.parvum, and then cloned into Peasy-T1 vector. Tenfold dilutions of positive plasmids (10(4)-10(8) copy/microl) were used to construct a standard curves by Taqman qPCR. The specificity of the assay was determined using genomic DNA of C. baileyi, Toxoplasma gondii, C. canis and Escherichia coli. The sensitivity of this assay was evaluated by analyzing 10-fold serially dilutions of plasmids ranging from 10(0) to 10(8) copy/microl. Both IMS-qPCR assay and indirect immunofluorescent-antibody assay (IFA) were applied to detect 50 water samples collected from the dairy cattle farms in Hebei.
Results: The optimal incubation concentration and time of antibody Cp23 were 20 ng/ml and 30 min, respectively, and the catching time was 30 min, the recovery rate was more than 95%. PCR product was 272 bp, and identified by restriction enzyme digestion and nucleotide sequencing. There was a good linear relationship between the standard plasmids and Ct value (correlation r2 = 0.996 1) of the Taqman qPCR. No cross-reactivity was observed with C. baileyi, T. gondii, C. canis and E. coli. The sensitivity of C. parvum-specific assay was 10 copy/microl. Compared with IFA as golden standard method, the specificity and sensitivity of IMS-qPCR for 50 water samples was 100%(18/18) and 93.8% (30/32), respectively.
Conclusion: The IMS-qPCR assay can be used to specifically detect C. parvum oocysts in water samples.