4.6 Article

A new luciferase immunoprecipitation system assay provided serological evidence for missed diagnosis of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome

Journal

VIROLOGICA SINICA
Volume 37, Issue 1, Pages 107-114

Publisher

KEAI PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.virs.2022.01.018

Keywords

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS); Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV); Luciferase immunoprecipitation systems (LIPS); Shaoxing; Serological evidence; Missed diagnosis

Categories

Funding

  1. National Program on Key Research Project of China [2018YFE0200400, 2019YFC1200700]
  2. National Natural Science Foundation of China [U20A20135]
  3. Strategic Biological Resources Capacity Building Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences [KFJ-BRP-017-06]
  4. Key deployment projects of Chinese Academy of Sciences [KJZD-SW-L11]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

A new immunoprecipitation assay was established in this study to investigate antibody responses to SFTSV, and the results suggested a higher incidence of SFTS in Shaoxing City in 2019 compared to the reported levels.
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), caused by SFTS virus (SFTSV) infection, was first reported in 2010 in China with an initial fatality of up to 30%. The laboratory confirmation of SFTSV infection in terms of detection of viral RNA or antibody levels is critical for SFTS diagnosis and therapy. In this study, a new luciferase immunoprecipitation system (LIPS) assay based on pREN2 plasmid expressing SFTSV NP gene and tagged with Renilla luciferase (Rluc), was established and used to investigate the levels of antibody responses to SFTSV. Totally 464 serum samples from febrile patients were collected in the hospital of Shaoxing City in Zhejiang Province in 2019. The results showed that 82 of the 464 patients (17.7%) had antibody response to SFTSV, which were further supported by immunofluorescence assays (IFAs). Further, qRT-PCR and microneutralization tests showed that among the 82 positive cases, 15 patients had viremia, 10 patients had neutralizing antibody, and one had both (totally 26 patient). However, none of these patients were diagnosed as SFTS in the hospital probably because of their mild symptoms or subclinical manifestations. All the results indicated that at least the 26 patients having viremia or neutralizing antibody were the missed diagnosis of SFTS cases. The findings suggested the occurrence of SFTS and the SFTS incidence were higher than the reported level in Shaoxing in 2019, and that LIPS may provide an alternative strategy to confirm SFTSV infection in the laboratory.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available