Western blotting is commonly used for the clinical diagnosis of various parasitic and fungal diseases including echinococcosis [74 (link)], toxoplasmosis [75 (link)], and aspergillosis [76 (link)]. In a recent study, the assay was successfully used for the reliable serodiagnosis of Farmer’s lung disease (FLD), a pulmonary disorder caused by inhalation of antigenic particles [77 (link)]. Thus, this technique can be exploited for rapid routine diagnosis of FLD in clinics [77 (link)]. Similarly, for immunodiagnostic of tuberculosis meningitis which is a chronic disease of central nervous system different molecular and immunological methods were used for clinical diagnosis of the disease. However, each of these techniques has their own limitations [78 (link)]. To overcome diagnostic issues of lower sensitivity and specificity, the immunoreactivity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens was performed by western blotting [78 (link)]. Furthermore, western blotting was performed for the early and sensitive diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis [79 (link)] and was employed for rapid and sensitive serological diagnosis of a serious infectious disease paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) [80 (link)]. Using immunoblotting, a new subgroup of human lymphotropic retroviruses (HTLV), was detected in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) [81 (link)]. Antigens of HTLV-III, specifically detected by antibodies in serum from AIDS or pre-AIDS patients [81 (link)]. Western blotting has also been used as a test for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease [82 (link)], some forms of Lyme disease [83 (link)] and is sometimes used as a confirmatory test for Hepatitis B [84 ] and Herpes Type 2 [85 (link)] infections. Western blots have also been used to confirm feline immunodeficiency status in cats [86 (link)].
Recently, a commercial Aspergillus western blotting IgG kit was developed by LD Bio Diagnostics (France) to carry out immunoblotting for the clinical diagnosis of chronic aspergillosis. The commercial kit was found to be sensitive and can analyze hundreds of samples from patients with aspergillus disease [87 (link)]. Thus, the clinical applications of western blotting technique will continue to progress as further advancements are made to improve sensitivity and reproducibility of the western blot.