PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

Development of Electrochemiluminescent Serology Assays to Measure the Humoral Response to Antigens of Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

  • Sarah V Maifeld,
  • Bodrey Ro,
  • Hoyin Mok,
  • Marla Chu,
  • Li Yu,
  • Ryan Yamagata,
  • Tansy Leonardson,
  • Vera Chio,
  • Bandita Parhy,
  • Samuel Park,
  • Marcia Carlson,
  • Shushil Machhi,
  • Nancy Ulbrandt,
  • Ann R Falsey,
  • Edward E Walsh,
  • C Kathy Wang,
  • Mark T Esser,
  • Fengrong Zuo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153019
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 4
p. e0153019

Abstract

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Sensitive and precise serology assays are needed to measure the humoral response to antigens of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) following natural infection or vaccination. We developed and evaluated a collection of electrochemiluminescent (ECL) serology assays using four RSV antigens (F, N, Ga and Gb). To assess the merits of ECL technology, the four ECL serology assays were evaluated using a well-characterized "gold standard" panel of acute and convalescent serum samples from fifty-nine RSV-positive and thirty RSV-negative elderly subjects (≥65 years old). The combined results from the four ECL assays demonstrated good concordance to the "gold standard" diagnosis, reaching 95% diagnostic sensitivity and 100% diagnostic specificity. Additionally, a combination of ECL assays provided higher diagnostic sensitivity than a commercially available diagnostic ELISA or cell-based microneutralization assay. In summary, these data demonstrate the advantages of using ECL-based serology assays and highlight their use as a sensitive diagnostic approach to detect recent RSV infection in an elderly population.