PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

Peptide-Recombinant VP6 Protein Based Enzyme Immunoassay for the Detection of Group A Rotaviruses in Multiple Host Species.

  • Naveen Kumar,
  • Yashpal Singh Malik,
  • Satish Kumar,
  • Kuldeep Sharma,
  • Subhankar Sircar,
  • Sharad Saurabh,
  • Baldev R Gulati,
  • Neeraj Singh,
  • Arvind Kumar Singh,
  • Vinay G Joshi,
  • Krisztian Banyai,
  • Kuldeep Dhama

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159027
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 7
p. e0159027

Abstract

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We developed a novel enzyme immunoassay for the detection of group A rotavirus (RVA) antigen in fecal samples of multiple host species. The assay is based on the detection of conserved VP6 protein using anti-recombinant VP6 antibodies as capture antibodies and anti-multiple antigenic peptide (identified and constructed from highly immunodominant epitopes within VP6 protein) antibodies as detector antibodies. The clinical utility of the assay was evaluated using a panel of 914 diarrhoeic fecal samples from four different host species (bovine, porcine, poultry and human) collected from diverse geographical locations in India. Using VP6- based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as the gold standard, we found that the diagnostic sensitivity (DSn) and specificity (DSp) of the new assay was high [bovine (DSn = 94.2% & DSp = 100%); porcine (DSn = 94.6% & DSp = 93.3%); poultry (DSn = 74.2% & DSp = 97.7%) and human (DSn = 82.1% & DSp = 98.7%)]. The concordance with RT-PCR was also high [weighted kappa (k) = 0.831-0.956 at 95% CI = 0.711-1.0] as compared to RNA-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (RNA-PAGE). The performance characteristics of the new immunoassay were comparable to those of the two commercially available ELISA kits. Our results suggest that this peptide-recombinant protein based assay may serve as a preliminary assay for epidemiological surveillance of RVA antigen and for evaluation of vaccine effectiveness especially in low and middle income settings.