Antibody-based assay discriminates Zika virus infection from other flaviviruses
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that emerged recently as a global health threat, causing a pandemic in the Americas. ZIKV infection mostly causes mild disease, but is linked to devastating congenital birth defects and Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults. The high level of cross-reactivity among flaviviruses and their cocirculation has complicated serological approaches to differentially detect ZIKV and dengue virus (DENV) infections, accentuating the urgent need for a specific and sensitive serological test. We previously generated a ZIKV nonstructural protein 1 (NS1)-specific human monoclonal antibody, which we used to develop an NS1-based competition ELISA. Well-characterized samples from RT-PCR-confirmed patients with Zika and individuals exposed to other flavivirus infections or vaccination were used in a comprehensive analysis to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the NS1 blockade-of-binding (BOB) assay, which was established in laboratories in five countries (Nicaragua, Brazil, Italy, United Kingdom, and Switzerland). Of 158 sera/plasma from RT-PCR-confirmed ZIKV infections, 145 (91.8%) yielded greater than 50% inhibition. Of 171 patients with primary or secondary DENV infections, 152 (88.9%) scored negative. When the control group was extended to patients infected by other flaviviruses, other viruses, or healthy donors (n = 540), the specificity was 95.9%. We also analyzed longitudinal samples from DENV-immune and DENV-naive ZIKV infections and found inhibition was achieved within 10 d postonset of illness and maintained over time. Thus, the Zika NS1 BOB assay is sensitive, specific, robust, simple, low-cost, and accessible, and can detect recent and past ZIKV infections for surveillance, seroprevalence studies, and intervention trials.
Date Issued
2017-08-01
Date Acceptance
2017-06-13
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017, 114 (31), pp.8384-8389
ISSN
0027-8424
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Start Page
8384
End Page
8389
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
114
Issue
31
Copyright Statement
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Zika
serology
flaviviruses
dengue
ELISA
REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION-PCR
PEDIATRIC DENGUE COHORT
TIME RT-PCR
CHIKUNGUNYA
SPECIMENS
DIAGNOSIS
TRAVELERS
DISEASE
URINE
RNA
Publication Status
Published