Proteome-wide discovery of novel diagnostic antigens for coccidioidomycosis

PepSeq proteome-wide peptide serology for Coccidioides spp. identifies novel antigens, and a pooled peptide ELISA discriminates Valley Fever cases from controls with AUC = 0.91 in an independent cohort.

• Why it matters: Valley Fever diagnosis relies on serology, but early infection has modest sensitivity, leaving a gap for better antigen targets that could improve detection.
• What they did: The study used PepSeq with a library of 244,000 DNA-barcoded peptides to profile antibody reactivity at protein and epitope levels in VF patients, naturally infected pigtail macaques, and healthy controls.
• The result: A subset of newly identified antigens in a pooled peptide ELISA achieved high-accuracy case–control discrimination (AUC = 0.91), supporting scalable fungal antigen discovery and new diagnostic targets.

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