Development of an antigen capture immunoassay based on monoclonal antibodies specific for dengue virus serotype 2 nonstructural protein 1 for early and rapid identification of dengue virus serotype 2 infections

Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2009 Jan;16(1):88-95. doi: 10.1128/CVI.00212-08. Epub 2008 Nov 19.

Abstract

The dengue virus (DENV) has four distinct serotypes (DENV1, DENV2, DENV3, and DENV4) that require differentiation for effective prevention of morbid diseases. The recently developed DENV1-specific NS1 antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that recognize distinct epitopes on nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) of a specific DENV serotype is convenient and cost-effective, but assays have not yet been developed for DENV serotypes 2 to 4. This paper describes the development and validation of a DENV2-specific NS1 antigen capture ELISA by selection and optimization of the pair of well-characterized MAbs that recognized epitopes specific for DENV2 NS1 from a large panel of MAbs. The DENV2 NS1 ELISA displayed exclusive sensitivity with the DENV2 serotype and did not cross-react with the other three DENV serotypes. The sensitivity and specificity of the DENV2 NS1 ELISA were 83.3% (25/30) and 100% (504/504) when used to test 30 acute-phase serum samples from patients infected with DENV2 identified by virus isolation or reverse transcription-PCR serotyping and 504 serum samples from healthy individuals, respectively. The specificity of this assay was also evaluated using a panel of serum samples which were positive for DENV1, other flaviviruses, and nonflaviviruses; no cross-reactions were observed in these clinical samples. The DENV2 NS1 ELISA was eightfold more sensitive than a commercially available serotype-cross-reactive NS1 ELISA (Panbio Diagnostics, Brisbane, Australia) when the two assays were used to test the DENV2-infected cell culture supernatants in parallel. The Panbio NS1 ELISA displayed variation in sensitivity between DENV serotypes. The DENV2-specific NS1 antigen capture ELISA can be used as a tool for the rapid identification of DENV2 infections.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal*
  • Antibodies, Viral*
  • Antigens, Viral / blood*
  • Australia
  • Cross Reactions
  • Dengue / diagnosis*
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / methods
  • Humans
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins / immunology*

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Antigens, Viral
  • NS1 protein, Dengue virus type 2
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins