An ultrasensitive rapid immunocytotoxicity assay for detecting Clostridium difficile toxins

We describe a novel ultrasensitive cell-based immunocytotoxicity assay for detecting Clostridium difficile toxin A and B. The assay is simple to perform with a turnaround time of approximately 3 h. It is particularly sensitive in detecting TcdA at a level less then 1 pg/ml. Using this assay, we were able to detect the presence of C, difficile toxins in the fecal and serum specimens of experimentally infected piglets. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.