A sensitive epitope-blocking ELISA for the detection of Chikungunya virus-specific antibodies in patients.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Chikungunya fever (CHIKF) has re-emerged as an arboviral disease that mimics clinical symptoms of other diseases such as dengue, malaria, as well as other alphavirus-related illnesses leading to problems with definitive diagnosis of the infection. Herein we describe the development and evaluation of a sensitive epitope-blocking ELISA (EB-ELISA) capable of specifically detecting anti-chikungunya virus (CHIKV) antibodies in clinical samples. The assay uses a monoclonal antibody (mAb) that binds an epitope on the E2 protein of CHIKV and does not exhibit cross-reactivity to other related alphaviruses. We also demonstrated the use of recombinant CHIK virus-like particles (VLPs) as a safe alternative antigen to infectious virions in the assay. Based on testing of 60 serum samples from patients in the acute or convalescent phase of CHIKV infection, the EB-ELISA provided us with 100% sensitivity, and exhibited 98.5% specificity when Ross River virus (RRV)- or Barmah Forest virus (BFV)-immune serum samples were included. This assay meets the public health demands of a rapid, robust, sensitive and specific, yet simple assay for specifically diagnosing CHIK-infections in humans.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Goh, LYH; Kam, Y-W; Metz, SW; Hobson-Peters, J; Prow, NA; McCarthy, S; Smith, DW; Pijlman, GP; Ng, LFP; Hall, RA

Published Date

  • September 2015

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 222 /

Start / End Page

  • 55 - 61

PubMed ID

  • 26025459

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1879-0984

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0166-0934

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.jviromet.2015.05.011

Language

  • eng