Faculty of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Central Virology Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
J Infect Dis. 2019 Mar 15;219(7):1035-1043. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiy606.
Zika virus has created global alarm because it has been associated with catastrophic fetal abnormalities, including microcephaly, spontaneous abortion, and intrauterine growth restriction. Current serological assays that detect antiviral antibodies suffer from low sensitivity and high cross-reactivity among different flaviviruses.
In this study, utilizing a novel magnetic modulation biosensing (MMB) system and the Zika nonstructural 1 protein, we show highly sensitive and specific Zika serological assays. We blindly tested 60 reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction Zika-positive samples and healthy patients' serum samples, as well as 44 serum samples from enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) West Nile- and dengue-positive patients. The Zika-positive samples were collected from Israeli travelers returning from Zika-endemic areas.
The MMB Zika assays have 88%-97% sensitivity, much higher than the current state-of-the-art EUROIMMUN ELISA assays (38%-74%). In addition, the specificity is 100%, and the cross-reactivity with West Nile and dengue viruses is minimal (0%-4%). Furthermore, the MMB assays detected Zika IgM antibodies as early as 5 days and as late as 180 days postsymptoms onset, significantly extending the number of days that the antibodies are detectable.
The sensitivity, specificity, and simplicity of the MMB assays may significantly improve Zika diagnosis and provide accurate results for public health agencies.
寨卡病毒引起了全球恐慌，因为它与灾难性的胎儿异常有关，包括小头畸形、自然流产和宫内生长受限。目前用于检测抗病毒抗体的血清学检测方法存在敏感性低和不同黄病毒之间交叉反应性高的问题。
在这项研究中，我们利用一种新型的磁调制生物传感（MMB）系统和寨卡非结构蛋白 1，展示了高灵敏度和特异性的寨卡血清学检测方法。我们对 60 份经逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测为寨卡病毒阳性的样本和健康患者的血清样本，以及 44 份经酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）检测为西尼罗河病毒和登革热病毒阳性的患者血清样本进行了盲测。这些 RT-PCR 检测为寨卡病毒阳性的样本来自从寨卡病毒流行地区返回的以色列旅行者。
MMB 寨卡检测方法的敏感性为 88%-97%，远高于目前最先进的 EUROIMMUN ELISA 检测方法（38%-74%）。此外，该方法的特异性为 100%，与西尼罗河病毒和登革热病毒的交叉反应性很小（0%-4%）。此外，MMB 检测方法可在症状出现后 5 天至 180 天检测到寨卡 IgM 抗体，显著延长了抗体可检测的天数。
MMB 检测方法的敏感性、特异性和简单性可能显著改善寨卡病毒的诊断，并为公共卫生机构提供准确的结果。
