Comparative analysis of recombinant P1 protein fragments by western blotting In this experiment, equal amount (1 μg) of purified recombinant P1 protein fragments (rP1-I-IV) were run in two separate SDS-PAGE. SDS-PAGE of all the four purified P1 protein fragments was Metabolism inhibitor transferred to two separate nitrocellulose membrane to perform western blotting. After blocking with 5% skimmed milk in PBS-T one membrane was then incubated with primary antibody (pooled sera of M. pneumoniae infected patients, 1:50) and second membrane

was incubated with primary anti-M. pneumoniae antibody (1:3,000 dilutions) for 1 h. After washing with PBS-T first membrane was incubated with secondary antibody goat anti-human IgG and second membrane with secondary antibody goat anti-rabbit IgG conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (1:5000 dilutions) for 1 h. The membrane was developed with DAB mTOR inhibitor drugs and H2O2. Reactivity of recombinant P1 protein fragments to patient sera All the Tanespimycin concentration four recombinant P1 protein fragments; rP1-I, rP1-II, rP1-III and rP1-IV were analyzed for their reactivity to twenty five sera of M. pneumoniae infected patients and sixteen healthy patient sera using ELISA assay as well as fifteen sera of M. pneumoniae

infected patients by western blot analysis. Western blot analysis was performed as described above using equal amount of recombinant proteins. For the ELISA analysis, 96-well microplates (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) were coated with 50 ng of either of the four P1 protein fragments in 0.06 M carbonate/bicarbonate buffer (pH 9.6) per well. The plates were kept overnight at 4°C and next day the well were washed with PBS-T and blocked with 5% skimmed milk in PBS-T for 2 h at room temperature. The antigen coated wells were next incubated with sera of M. pneumoniae infected patients (1:50 dilutions) for 1 h at 37°C. After incubation, plates were washed with PBS-T and incubated 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase with

secondary goat anti-human antibody conjugated with horseradish-peroxidase (1:3,000 dilutions) for another 1 h at 37°C. The enzyme reaction was developed by addition of TMB/H2O2 substrate (Bangalore Genei) and was incubated in dark for 30 min at 37°C. The reaction was stopped with 2 N H2SO4 and the absorbance was read at 450 nm wavelength using micro-plate ELISA reader (Bio-Tek Microplate Reader, USA). M. pneumoniae adhesion assay HEp-2 cells (5×104 HEp-2 cells ml−1), in RPMI-1640 medium with penicillin (100 U ml−1) 0.05% were added to 24-well Multi-dish plates (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) using sterile glass cover slips underneath. The plates were incubated overnight in 5% CO2 at 37°C. Next day, HEp-2 cells in each well were infected with the M. pneumoniae RPMI-suspension (50 μl well−1) and incubated for 6 h in 5% CO2 at 37°C. The infected HEp-2 cells were fixed in methanol 100% (1 ml well−1) at −20°C for 1 h and washed with PBS.