Laboratory of Molecular Virology, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Trieste, Italy.
Laboratory of Diagnostics of Zoonoses and WHO Centre, Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020 Jan 29;14(1):e0008039. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008039. eCollection 2020 Jan.
Flaviviruses are relevant animal and human pathogens of increasing importance worldwide. The similarities of the initial clinical symptoms and the serological cross-reactivity of viral structural antigens make a laboratory diagnosis of flavivirus infection problematic. The main aim of the present study was the comparative specificity and sensitivity analysis of the non-structural protein NS1 as an antigen to detect flavivirus antibodies in sera from exposed individuals. A strategy for the purification of native recombinant non-structural protein 1 of representative flaviviruses including tick-borne encephalitis, West Nile, Zika and dengue virus was developed. The immunological properties of the purified antigens were analyzed using sera of immunized mice and of infected individuals in comparison with standard commercial assays. Recombinant NS1 protein was confirmed as a valuable option for the detection of flavivirus antibodies with reduced cross-reactivity and high sensitivity offering additional advantages for the detection of vaccine breakthrough cases.
黄病毒是具有重要意义的动物和人类病原体,在全球范围内的重要性日益增加。初始临床症状的相似性和病毒结构抗原的血清学交叉反应性使得黄病毒感染的实验室诊断变得复杂。本研究的主要目的是比较非结构蛋白 NS1 作为抗原的特异性和敏感性,以检测暴露个体血清中的黄病毒抗体。针对包括蜱传脑炎、西尼罗河、寨卡和登革热病毒在内的有代表性的黄病毒,开发了一种用于纯化天然重组非结构蛋白 1 的策略。使用免疫小鼠的血清和感染个体的血清对纯化抗原的免疫原性进行了分析,并与标准商业检测进行了比较。重组 NS1 蛋白被证实是一种有价值的选择,可用于检测黄病毒抗体,具有较低的交叉反应性和较高的敏感性,为检测疫苗突破性病例提供了额外的优势。