Fig. 1

Denaturation diminishes the antigenicity of rK39 to a greater extent than for rK28. a Example of ELISA plate with coating of antigens rK39 and rK28 non-denatured or denatured; in each quadrant, the same serum samples are arranged identically. VL Sudanese visceral leishmaniasis, EHC endemic healthy control, NI, samples not included in subsequent analysis, as the reaction with non-denatured antigen was below cut-off. b Mean absorbance values of individual VL sera are shown, against antigens non-denatured (dark bars) or heat-denatured (corresponding light bars); cut-off value is normalized as y-axis zero. Inset: box-and-whisker plot of composite absorbance values of VL sera against denatured and non-denatured rK28 and rK39