Elek test

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The Elek test (also Elek-Ouchterlony immunodiffusion test ) is evidence of the toxicity of Corynebacterium diphtheriae .

principle

If there is a lack of iron, the Corynebacterium diphtheriae increases the diphtheria toxin. The Elek test is used to detect this toxin and thus also the corresponding bacterium in an immunodiffusion test . In the middle of a Petri dish there is a strip-shaped filter paper soaked in antitoxin , and across it the diphtheria strain to be examined is again applied in strip form to the Petri dish. If this strain produces the toxin, antitoxin and toxin diffuse against each other. Where they meet, a precipitation line is created by the formation of an antigen-antibody complex . Diphtheria toxin and antitoxin from the soaked filter paper react with each other to form a cross-linked complex, which is linear and therefore mostly visible as an S-shaped line. If the diphtheria strain lacks the toxin or if it is not at all Corynebacterium diphtheriae , no precipitation line is formed.

The SLT-Elek test is a variant of the Elek test and can be used to detect Shiga-like toxin in Escherichia coli .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ SD Elek: The plate virulence test for diphtheria. In: Journal of clinical pathology. Volume 2, Number 4, November 1949, pp. 250-258, ISSN  0021-9746 . PMID 15396422 . PMC 1023322 (free full text).
  2. ^ JH Schubert, ST Bickham, GL Wiggins: Tissue culture method for toxigenicity testing of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. In: Applied microbiology. Volume 16, Number 11, November 1968, pp. 1748-1752, ISSN  0003-6919 . PMID 4973065 . PMC 547753 (free full text).
  3. ↑ Y. Germani, E. Begaud, JM Desperrier: Easy-to-perform modified Elek test to identify Shiga-like toxin-producing Escherichia coli diarrhoeogenic. In: Research in microbiology. Volume 145, Number 4, May 1994, pp. 333-340, ISSN  0923-2508 . PMID 7997646 .