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The 70-kDa heat shock protein of Mycobacterium leprae has a high degree of homology with the human hsp70 protein, yet it still elicits T-lymphocyte responses in subjects infected with M. leprae or vaccinated with the related Mycobacterium bovis BCG. We examined the serological responses to this protein by using recombinant protein fragments expressed from mutants with deletions of the M. leprae p70 gene. Monoclonal antibodies raised against either M. bovis or M. leprae p70 reacted with the C-terminal fragments but not the N-terminal fragments in a solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an immunoblot assay. Inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays confirmed that two separate epitopes were defined by these monoclonal antibodies. Murine polyclonal sera also showed stronger binding to the C-terminal fragments. Sera from 33 and 48% of lepromatous leprosy patients reacted with M. leprae and M. bovis p70. This reactivity was mycobacterium specific, since few sera from control subjects in the same leprosy-endemic region were seropositive. The levels of anti-mycobacterial hsp70 antibodies were higher in patients with lepromatous leprosy than in those with tuberculoid leprosy or tuberculosis. The reactivity of sera from patients with leprosy was maximal with the C-terminal fragments. Therefore the C-terminal portion of M. leprae hsp70, which includes the region of maximum divergence from human hsp70, is the major target for the humoral immune response to the protein.

The variable C-terminal region of the Mycobacterium leprae 70-kilodalton heat shock protein is the target for humoral immune responses