Patent ID: 7122320

Claim:
A method for detecting an infection of an acid-resistant bacterium belonging to the genus Helicobacter in a human, comprising: (a) incubating a stool sample of the human with at least two different monoclonal antibodies, or Fab-, F(ab)′ 2 , Fv-, or scFv-fragments thereof under conditions allowing formation of complexes between antigens from the acid-resistant bacterium and the antibodies or Fab-, F(ab)′ 2 , Fv-, or scFv-fragments thereof, in which (aa) a first monoclonal antibody or Fab-, F(ab)′ 2 , Fv-, or scFv-fragment thereof specifically binds an epitope of a first antigen, which shows at least with some humans a structure after intestinal passage that corresponds to a native structure, or a structure which a human produces antibodies against after being infected or immunized with the acid-resistant bacterium, an extract or lysate thereof, protein therefrom, a fragment thereof or synthetic peptide, which epitope is the epitope of an antigen selected from the group consisting of: a urease, a heat shock protein, an alkylhydroperoxide-reductase, a 20 kDa-protein, a 16.9 kDa-protein and a 33.8 kDa-protein; (ab) a second monoclonal antibody or Fab-, F(ab)′ 2 , Fv-, or scFv-fragment thereof specifically binds an epitope of a second antigen, differing from the epitope of the first antigen, which shows at least with some humans a structure after intestinal passage that corresponds to the native structure, or a structure which a human produces antibodies against after being infected or immunized with the acid-resistant bacterium, an extract or lysate thereof, a protein therefrom, a fragment thereof or a synthetic peptide, in which the groups of humans according to (aa) and (ab) may overlap, and in total essentially make up the overall number of infected, humans, which epitiope is the epitope of an antigen selected from the group consisting of: urease, a heat shock protein, an alkylhydroperoxide-reductase, a 20 kDa-protein, a 16.9 kDa-protein and a 33.8 kDa-protein; and (b) detecting the formation of at least one antigen-antibody complex according to (aa) or (ab).