Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.
Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2019 Jul 22;13(7):e0007614. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007614. eCollection 2019 Jul.
Filoviruses such as Ebola virus (EBOV) cause outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic fevers for which no FDA-approved vaccines or drugs are available. The 2014-2016 EBOV outbreak in West Africa infected approximately 30,000 people, killing more than 11,000 and affecting thousands more in areas still suffering from the effects of civil wars. Sierra Leone and Liberia reported EBOV cases in every county demonstrating the efficient spread of this highly contagious virus in the well-connected societies of West Africa. In communities, canines are often in contact with people while scavenging for food, which may include sickly bush animals or, as reported from the outbreak, EBOV infected human bodies and excrement. Therefore, dogs may serve as sentinel animals for seroprevalence studies of emerging infectious viruses. Further, due to their proximity to humans, they may have important One Health implications while offering specimens, which may be easier to obtain than human serum samples. Previous reports on detecting EBOV exposure in canines have been limited. Herein we describe a pilot project to detect IgG-responses directed against multiple filovirus and Lassa virus (LASV) antigens in dogs from EBOV affected communities in Liberia. We used a multiplex Luminex-based microsphere immunoassay (MIA) to detect dog IgG binding to recombinant filovirus antigens or LASV glycoprotein (GP) in serum from dogs that were old enough to be present during the EBOV outbreak. We identified 47 (73%) of 64 dog serum samples as potentially exposed to filoviruses and up to 100% of the dogs from some communities were found to have elevated levels of EBOV antigen-binding IgG titers. The multiplex MIA described in this study provides evidence for EBOV IgG antibodies present in dogs potentially exposed to the virus during the 2014-16 outbreak in Liberia. These data support the feasibility of canines as EBOV sentinels and provides evidence that seroprevalence studies in dogs can be conducted using suitable assays even under challenging field conditions. Further studies are warranted to collect data and to define the role canines may play in transmission or detection of emerging infectious diseases.
丝状病毒，如埃博拉病毒（EBOV），会引发病毒性出血热疫情，但目前尚无获得美国食品和药物管理局（FDA）批准的疫苗或药物。2014 年至 2016 年期间，埃博拉病毒在西非的爆发感染了约 3 万人，造成 11000 多人死亡，在仍受内战影响的地区，数千人受到影响。塞拉利昂和利比里亚报告称，每个县都有埃博拉病毒病例，这表明这种高传染性病毒在西非互联互通的社会中传播效率很高。在社区中，犬类在觅食时经常与人类接触，这些食物可能包括患病的丛林动物，或者如疫情报告所述，感染埃博拉病毒的人体和排泄物。因此，犬类可能是新兴传染病病毒血清流行率研究的哨兵动物。此外，由于它们与人类的密切关系，它们可能具有重要的“同一健康”意义，同时提供的样本可能比人类血清样本更容易获得。之前关于检测犬类中埃博拉病毒暴露的报告有限。在此，我们描述了一个试点项目，即在利比里亚受埃博拉病毒影响的社区中，使用基于多重 Luminex 的微球免疫分析（MIA）检测针对多种丝状病毒和拉沙病毒（LASV）抗原的犬类 IgG 反应。我们使用多重 Luminex 基于微球免疫分析（MIA）来检测血清中犬类 IgG 与重组丝状病毒抗原或 LASV 糖蛋白（GP）的结合，这些犬的年龄足以在埃博拉病毒爆发期间存在。我们确定了 64 份犬血清样本中的 47 份（73%）可能接触过丝状病毒，并且一些社区中的犬的埃博拉病毒抗原结合 IgG 滴度高达 100%。本研究中描述的多重 MIA 为在 2014-16 年利比里亚疫情期间可能接触到病毒的犬类存在埃博拉病毒 IgG 抗体提供了证据。这些数据支持犬类作为埃博拉病毒哨兵的可行性，并提供了证据，即在具有挑战性的现场条件下，使用合适的检测方法可以在犬类中进行血清流行率研究。需要进一步研究以收集数据并确定犬类在新兴传染病传播或检测中可能发挥的作用。
