Unité des Virus Emergents (UVE: Aix Marseille Univ., IRD 190, INSERM 1207, IHU Méditerranée Infection), 13005 Marseille, France.
EA7310, Laboratoire de Virologie, Université de Corse-Inserm, 94925 Corte, France.
Viruses. 2019 Aug 15;11(8):755. doi: 10.3390/v11080755.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) re-emerged as a globalized health threat fifteen years ago. There are dozens of RT-PCR assays published. An inventory of the latter was made, and after analysis, two assays were selected for their ability to detect strains belonging to the five CHIKV genetic lineages. They were combined in order to provide a robust assay not affected by genetic point mutations and the resulting Duo CHIKV real-time RT-PCR assay was compared to the two parental single-plex tests against five strains belonging to the five genetic lineages. The Duo CHIKV assay performed equally, or better, in terms of sensitivity, specificity, linearity and signal intensity. Dual-target assays are better suited for viruses having the propensity to evolve into new variants via point mutations or major sequence deletions/insertions. Here, we demonstrated that combining two single systems into a dual-target assay did not impair sensitivity and specificity, and proved a potent diagnostic tool to face a potential emergence of CHIKV variants by newly evolving mutations.
基孔肯雅热病毒（CHIKV）在十五年前再次成为全球性的健康威胁。目前已经发表了数十种 RT-PCR 检测方法。我们对这些方法进行了盘点，经过分析，选择了两种能够检测属于五个 CHIKV 遗传谱系的毒株的方法。将它们组合在一起，以便提供一种不受遗传点突变影响的稳健检测方法，由此产生的 Duo CHIKV 实时 RT-PCR 检测方法与针对属于五个遗传谱系的五个毒株的两种亲本单重检测方法进行了比较。在灵敏度、特异性、线性和信号强度方面，Duo CHIKV 检测方法的性能相当，甚至更好。对于那些容易通过点突变或主要序列缺失/插入而进化成新变体的病毒，双靶标检测方法更为适用。在这里，我们证明将两种单重系统组合成双重靶标检测方法不会损害其灵敏度和特异性，并为应对 CHIKV 变体因新进化突变而潜在出现提供了一种强大的诊断工具。
