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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, April 2000, p. 1439-1443, Vol. 38, No. 4
Departments of Internal
Medicine1 and Laboratory
Medicine,4 Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, and Infectious Diseases2
and Laboratory Medicine and Pathology,3
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut
Received 20 September 1999/Returned for modification 23 December
1999/Accepted 2 February 2000
A rapid enzymatic fluorometric assay for measuring
D-arabinitol in serum was developed using recombinant
D-arabinitol dehydrogenase from Candida
albicans (rArDH). rArDH was produced in Escherichia coli and purified by dye-ligand affinity chromatography. rArDH was highly specific for D-arabinitol, cross-reacting only
with xylitol (4.9%) among all polyols tested. A Cobas Fara II
centrifugal autoanalyzer (Roche) was used to measure NADH
fluorometrically when rArDH and NAD were added to serum extracts, and
D-arabinitol concentrations were calculated from standard
curves derived from pooled human serum containing known amounts of
D-arabinitol. The method was precise (mean intra-assay
coefficients of variation [CVs], 0.8%, and mean interassay CVs,
1.6%) and rapid (3.5 min per assay) and showed excellent recovery of
added D-arabinitol in serum (mean recovery rate, 101%).
The mean and median D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios were
2.74 and 2.23 µM/mg/dl, respectively, for the 11 patients with
candidemia compared to 1.14 and 1.23 µM/mg/dl, respectively, for 10 healthy controls (P < 0.01). These results confirm
earlier studies showing that serum D-arabinitol measurement
may help to promptly diagnose invasive candidiasis. The technique shows
a significant improvement in terms of accuracy, cost, simplicity, specificity, and speed compared with gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and earlier enzymatic assays.
As the incidence of invasive
candidiasis has increased dramatically in recent years, the accurate
and early detection of this infection has become of major importance.
Unfortunately, conventional culture-based clinical methods, which may
take several days to become positive, are not very sensitive for
detecting invasive disease (1, 7, 14, 15). Alternative
approaches such as PCR assays and immunodiagnostic methods have been
described, but these methods are not yet sufficiently sensitive and
specific to have been widely adopted in clinical practice
(15).
D-Arabinitol is a metabolite of several pathogenic
Candida species, and several studies have shown that serum
D-arabinitol concentrations and serum
D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios are higher in humans and
animals with invasive candidiasis than in uninfected or colonized
controls (4, 9, 18, 19). Early studies used gas
chromatography (GC) or GC-mass spectrometry to detect and quantify
D-arabinitol in serum (2, 4, 5, 9). However, these methods require expensive equipment, and specimen processing and
analysis require considerable time and effort. Enzymatic assays that
used D-arabinitol dehydrogenase from Klebsiella
pneumoniae (10, 11) to quantify
D-arabinitol are less cumbersome, but these enzymes also
react with D-mannitol, which is sometimes present in human
serum (8). In 1994, Switchenko et al. (13)
described a colorimetric endpoint enzymatic assay that used a clinical
chemistry autoanalyzer and D-arabinitol dehydrogenase
(ArDH) from Candida tropicalis to quantify
D-arabinitol in serum (13). The ArDH utilized in
this study was extracted and purified from C. tropicalis. A
method for overproducing recombinant C. tropicalis ArDH in
Escherichia coli has since been described (6),
but recombinant ArDH (rArDH) has not yet been used in automated
D-arabinitol assays.
In this study, we describe a sensitive, specific, and rapid enzymatic
fluorometric method for measuring D-arabinitol in serum utilizing an automated analyzer. This new assay is faster and simpler
than methods employing GC, GC-mass spectrometry, or the colorimetric
endpoint enzymatic assay. Moreover, fewer reagents are required, and
the automated equipment is available in many clinical laboratories. The
key reagent is rArDH from Candida albicans, which was
overproduced in E. coli and purified to homogeneity by
dye-ligand affinity chromatography. The assay is based on oxidation of
D-arabinitol to D-ribulose by rArDH, with the
concomitant reduction of NAD to NADH. The initial rate of NADH
production, which is proportional to the amount of
D-arabinitol in serum, is measured fluorometrically. The
D-arabinitol concentration was determined by comparing the
initial rate of NADH production to that for D-arabinitol calibration curves.
Expression, purification, and properties of rArDH. (i) Production
and purification of rArDH.
In order to produce recombinant
C. albicans ArDH (rArDH) in E. coli, we used PCR
to amplify the C. albicans ARD1 coding sequence from plasmid
pJB4 (20) and to change the CATAATGGAT
sequence at the start codon (underlined) to CACCATGGAT,
thereby introducing an NcoI restriction site. The PCR
product was digested with NcoI and XbaI and
ligated into NcoI- and XbaI-digested pET19b
(Novagen), which yielded pET19b/ArDH. Next, the portion of the
ARD1 coding sequence 3' to the SpeI restriction
site was excised from pET19b/ArDH with SpeI and
XbaI and replaced with the SpeI-XbaI
fragment from pJB4, which yielded pET19b/ArDH81. Lastly, all of the
ARD1 coding sequence 5' to the SpeI restriction
site in pET19b/ArDH81 was sequenced to verify that no errors had been
introduced by PCR.
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
A Rapid, Automated Enzymatic Fluorometric Assay for
Determination of D-Arabinitol in Serum
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ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
-D-thiogalactopyranoside (American
Bioanalytical, Natick, Mass.) was added to 1 mM, and the cells were
shaken at 37°C for 3 more h. The cells were harvested by
centrifugation and suspended in 100 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0)
(2 ml/100-ml cultures). The cells were broken by sonication for four
periods of 10 s each, and cellular debris was pelleted by
centrifugation at 30,000 × g for 30 min. The
supernatant was cleared by ultracentrifugation at 100,000 × g for 45 min, and it was loaded onto a reactive Yellow 86 column
(2.5 by 20 cm) (Sigma) and washed with 350 ml of 100 mM sodium
phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) and with 350 ml of 100 mM sodium phosphate
buffer (pH 7.0) plus 0.5 M NaCl. rArDH was eluted with 50 mM sodium
phosphate buffer (pH 7.0)-250 mM NaCl-5 mM MgSO4-1 mM
NADH. Active fractions were pooled and concentrated by ultrafiltration
(Centriprep-30; Amicon, Danvers, Mass.). NADH was removed with a
desalting column (Econo-Pac DG; Bio-Rad, Richmond, Calif.), and the
purified rArDH was stored at
80°C in 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer
(pH 7.0)-200 mM NaCl-5 mM MgSO4.
(ii) Characterization of rArDH. The purity of rArDH was assessed by denaturing sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, using a 12% polyacrylamide gel. rArDH catalytic activity was monitored using a UV2401 PC Spectrophotometer (Shimadzu Scientific, Inc., Braintree, Mass.). The 1-ml reaction mixture contained 50 mM glycine (pH 9.0), 0.1 U of rArDH, and 10 µl of 50 mM NAD; the reaction was initiated by the addition of 50 µl of 15% (wt/vol) D-arabinitol. Specific activity is reported as units per milligram of protein, where 1 U is defined as the amount required to generate 1 µmol of NADH/min. For substrate and cofactor specificity studies, the reaction mixture contained 50 mM glycine (pH 9.0), 0.5 M NAD, 0.1 U of enzyme, and 100 mM substrates. The reverse reaction was assayed in 50 mM glycine (pH 7.0), containing 0.34 mM NADH, 0.1 U of rArDH, and 100 mM substrates.
To test the effect of pH on the enzyme activity, buffers containing 50 mM sodium citrate, 50 mM sodium phosphate, and 100 mM Tris with pH values ranging from 4.0 to 10.5 were used.Fluorometric enzymatic assay for measuring serum
D-arabinitol concentration. (i) Serum treatment and
analysis.
Serum was diluted 1:1 (vol/vol) with 10 mM sodium
citrate (pH 4.0), boiled for 10 min, cooled on ice, and then
centrifuged at 10,000 × g for 10 min. The supernatant
was analyzed immediately or stored at
20°C for later analysis.
F/min.
The Cobas Fara II was programmed to mix 85 µl of pretreated sample
and 135 µl of reagent containing 50 mM glycine (pH 9.5), 0.03 mg of
bovine serum albumin per ml, 5 mM MgSO4, 100 mM NaCl, and
0.5 U of rArDH. After incubation at 25°C for 30 s, 10 µl of reagent containing 0.5 mM NAD was added. Measurement began after 5 s. The increase of fluorescence was recorded at 30-s intervals for
150 s (excitation wavelength, 345 nm; emission wavelength, 450 nm). The slope during the first 30 s was used to calculate the
rate of NAD reduction.
(ii) Calibration curves. Six calibrators were prepared by supplementing a normal pooled human serum with different concentrations of D-arabinitol prior to sample pretreatment. An endogenous D-arabinitol concentration of approximately 1.1 µM was determined in this normal pooled human serum by the method of Switchenko et al. (13). The final concentrations of D-arabinitol in six calibrators were 1.1, 2.1, 6.1, 11.1, 16.1, and 21.1 µM, respectively. Calibration curves were obtained by plotting the initial rate of NADH produced by standards versus the D-arabinitol concentration of the standards. Concentrations of D-arabinitol in unknown samples were determined by reference to the linear least-squares fit to the calibration curves.
(iii) Human samples. Single serum samples were obtained from 10 healthy controls and from 11 non-human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with Candida fungemia and no known immunodeficiency states. The serum specimen from each fungemic patient was obtained on the day where the first positive blood culture was drawn. Seven patients had C. albicans fungemia, and four had Candida parapsilosis fungemia. D-Arabinitol was measured by the automated enzyme fluorometric method, creatinine was measured by an alkaline picrate (modified Jaffe) reaction on a Hitachi 717 chemistry instrument, and D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios were calculated as previously described (16).
(iv) Statistical analysis. The significance of differences between the D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios for Candida fungemic patients and uninfected controls was assessed by the Mann-Whitney test, and a P value of <0.05 was considered significant.
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RESULTS |
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Catalytic and physical properties of the rArDH. The overall yield of rArDH from the purification procedure was 80%, and its specific activity was 123.5 U/mg. Analysis of the NADH elute by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed a single band at a subunit molecular mass of 31 kDa.
The enzyme was highly specific for D-arabinitol, exhibiting 4.9% cross-reactivity with xylitol and no detectable reactivity with L-arabinitol, galactitol, glycerol, mannitol, D-ribitol, or D-ribitol-5-phosphate. For the reverse activity, the enzyme oxidized NADH in the presence of D-ribulose (137.2 U/mg), with 5% cross-reactivity with D-xylulose. No cross-reactivity was seen with glucose, D-arabinose-5-phosphate, D-ribulose-5-phosphate, or D-xylulose-5-phosphate. The apparent Km for D-arabinitol was 46.6 mM in the presence of NAD, and the Km for D-ribulose was 42.6 mM in the presence of NADH. The effects of metal ions, pH, and temperature on the enzyme activity were determined. Addition of 5 mM MgCl2 and 5 mM MgSO4 increased the catalytic activity of rArDH by
33%,
but 5 mM ZnSO4 and 5 mM CaCl2 decreased
its activity by 66 and 30%, respectively. Also, EDTA at
10
µM decreased the enzyme activity by 77.5%. However, 100 mM NaCl and
0.02% (wt/vol) bovine serum albumin did not alter the catalytic
activity of rArDH. Thus, NaCl and bovine serum albumin were included in
the automated assay as stabilizers. The optimum pH for
D-arabinitol oxidation is 9.0, and catalytic activity
decreased by 50% at a pH value of
10.0. rArDH was stable at 4°C
for 1 week, at
20°C for 3 weeks, and at
80°C for at least 3 months.
Automated enzymatic fluorometric assay of D-arabinitol
in serum. (i) Calibration curves.
Calibration curves generated on
six different days were linear with correlation coefficients of
0.998 ± 0.001 (Fig. 1). Assay precision was high, with a mean interassay variance of 2.5%.
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(ii) Accuracy and precision. The interassay precision was determined by analyzing human sera spiked with 5 and 15 µM D-arabinitol and tested on six different days. The coefficients of variation were 1.7% at 5 µM and 1.4% at 15 µM (mean, 1.6%). Intra-assay precision was evaluated by determining the concentration of human sera spiked with 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 11, 15, and 20 µM D-arabinitol. Coefficients of variation ranged from 0.1 to 1.5% (mean, 0.8%).
Accuracy was evaluated by determining the D-arabinitol concentrations of eight sera spiked with 0.1 to 20 µM D-arabinitol. The D-arabinitol concentrations of each spiked serum were predicted by the total concentrations of endogenous and supplemented D-arabinitol. A comparison between predicted D-arabinitol values and values measured by enzymatic fluorometric assay showed no significant difference. The linear calibration curve was obtained with correlation coefficients of 0.999 (Fig. 2). Recovery of D-arabinitol was studied by adding 2 µM D-arabinitol as a supplement to nine different serum specimens. Recoveries were measured by the difference in measured D-arabinitol concentration between supplemented and unsupplemented samples and divided by D-arabinitol concentration added. The average recovery ranged from 96 to 106% with a mean of 101% (Table 1).
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(iii) Interference with assay by sugars and therapeutic drugs. L-Arabinitol (50 µM), ribitol (50 µM), xylitol (50 µM), D-sorbitol (50 µM), galactitol (50 µM), D-galactose (500 µM), D-fructose (500 µM), D-mannose (750 µM), and glucose (5,000 µM) were tested for their ability to interfere with the assay. Only 50 µM xylitol produced a measurable response, and this represented 5.0% of the response observed with an equimolar amount of D-arabinitol.
Several drugs were also tested for possible interference with the D-arabinitol assay. These included acetaminophen (300 µg/ml), methylprednisone (120 µg/ml), amphotericin B (20 µg/ml), itraconazole (16 µg/ml), ketoconazole (16 µg/ml), cefaclor (230 µg/ml), ciprofloxacin (43 µg/ml), erythromycin (200 µg/ml), gentamicin (120 µg/ml), chloramphenicol (250 µg/ml), vancomycin (630 µg/ml), and heparin (8 U/ml). None of these drugs produced a measurable response.(iv) D-Arabinitol concentrations and
D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios in patients with
candidemia.
Serum D-arabinitol concentrations ranged
from 1.10 to 1.58 µM in 10 healthy controls and 1.64 to 19.11 µM in
the 11 patients with Candida fungemia. The mean and median
D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios were 1.14 and 1.23 µM/mg/dl, respectively, for the healthy subjects, and they were 2.74 and 2.23 µM/mg/dl, respectively, for the patients with candidemia
(Fig. 3). The infected patients' D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios were significantly higher
than the values for the healthy subjects (P < 0.01 by
the Mann-Whitney test).
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DISCUSSION |
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Many medically important species of Candida (including C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and C. parapsilosis) produce measurable amounts of D-arabinitol in culture as well as in infected animals and humans (3, 4, 5, 18). It has been shown elsewhere that patients with invasive candidiasis had higher serum D-arabinitol levels than did uninfected controls and that these levels declined with effective therapy (2, 4, 19). Based on these results, D-arabinitol has been recognized as a potentially useful diagnostic marker for invasive candidiasis. Since D-arabinitol is cleared primarily by glomerular filtration, the level of D-arabinitol in serum increases in proportion to creatinine when renal function is impaired. To correct for this effect, we and others have used serum D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios (4, 16, 17, 18).
Despite the usefulness of D-arabinitol as a diagnostic marker, its routine use in the clinical laboratory has been limited due to the unavailability of rapid and simple analytical methods. GC and GC-mass spectrometry were used originally to measure D-arabinitol. However, these methods are complicated, technically demanding, and time-consuming and may allow only a small number of samples to be tested each day (8, 9). The necessary equipment is also very expensive and is not routinely available in hospital diagnostic laboratories. Hence, an enzymatic method that used ArDH from K. pneumoniae was developed (10, 11, 12). However, this enzyme showed 20% cross-reactivity with D-mannitol, a sugar that may be present in normal human serum (8, 10). Thereafter, an automated enzymatic assay, based on colorimetric endpoint, for measuring D-arabinitol in human serum using a highly specific ArDH from C. tropicalis was developed (13). A large prospective clinical trial carried out by Walsh et al. (16) showed that the automated D-arabinitol testing was useful for diagnosing invasive candidiasis initially and for assessing response to therapy. However, no further investigations using this method have been reported since 1995.
If an automated D-arabinitol test is to be used widely in clinical practice, a reliable source of ArDH is needed. Although a method for overproducing recombinant C. tropicalis ArDH has been described previously (6), rArDH has not yet been used in an automated D-arabinitol assay. To ensure a steady source of rArDH, we cloned the C. albicans structural gene, overproduced rArDH in E. coli, and purified rArDH to homogeneity by dye-ligand affinity chromatography. Thus, it is now possible to generate a highly purified rArDH that is highly specific for D-arabinitol and has no cross-reactivity with sugars commonly found in human serum such as L-arabinitol, mannitol, and sorbitol. With a readily obtainable recombinant enzyme, it is technically feasible to detect and quantify D-arabinitol using clinical chemistry equipment.
The automated fluorometric enzymatic assay described here is much faster and simpler to use than either GC or GC-mass spectrometry. The assay has been set to perform automatically on a Cobas Fara II centrifugal autoanalyzer, thereby simplifying the procedure. The automated enzymatic D-arabinitol assay developed by Switchenko et al. (13) was based on two reactions: the first reaction is the oxidation of D-arabinitol and the concomitant reduction of NAD to NADH. In the second reaction, the NADH reduces p-iodonitrotetrazolium violet to iodonitrotetrazolium-formazan, which is measured spectrophotometrically. In the fluorometric assay described here, the coupling reagent and dye reagent are eliminated, saving both time and cost in reagent preparation and reducing potential sources of error. Our reaction system, which is based on initial reaction rate, is approximately five times faster than the dye-coupling method using the endpoint reaction. The dye-coupling method requires 16 min for one assay, whereas the fluorometric assay requires only 3.5 min, thereby increasing sample throughput substantially.
We have used the enzymatic fluorometric assay to monitor the levels of D-arabinitol in the serum of healthy controls and patients with candidemia. Although the numbers of studied subjects were small, significantly elevated D-arabinitol/creatinine ratios were found in the serum from patients with invasive candidiasis compared to the ratios for uninfected controls. These data, in conjunction with other clinical indicators, may provide earlier detection of invasive candidiasis, which in turn may facilitate the earlier treatment of invasive candidiasis.
The enzymatic fluorometric assay that we developed is simple, highly specific, and sensitive for measuring D-arabinitol in serum and permits analysis of many samples within a working day. Currently, we have an ongoing prospective project in the State of Connecticut for retrieving serum specimens from patients diagnosed with candidemia. The study will allow us to explore the potential role of monitoring serum D-arabinitol concentration by the fluorometric method described here. Although blood culture is unlikely to be replaced by other diagnostic tools, we anticipate that fluorometric detection of D-arabinitol will ultimately lead to improved diagnosis of invasive candidiasis.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs and from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: VA Medical Center, Infectious Diseases, 950 Campbell Ave., 111-I, West Haven, CT 06516. Phone: (203) 932-5711, ext. 5168. Fax: (203) 937-4851. E-mail: brian.wong{at}yale.edu.
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