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PLoS ONE. A Combination of Serological Assays to Detect Human Antibodies to the Avian Influenza A H7N9 Virus
[Source: PLoS ONE, full page: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]
Open Access / Peer-Reviewed / Research Article
A Combination of Serological Assays to Detect Human Antibodies to the Avian Influenza A H7N9 Virus
Libo Dong, Hong Bo, Tian Bai, Rongbao Gao, Jie Dong, Ye Zhang, Junfeng Guo, Shumei Zou, Jianfang Zhou, Yun Zhu, Li Xin, Xiaodan Li, Cuiling Xu, [ ... ], Dayan Wang, Yuelong Shu
Published: April 22, 2014 / DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095612
Abstract
Human infection with avian influenza A H7N9 virus was first identified in March 2013 and represents an ongoing threat to public health. There is a need to optimize serological methods for this new influenza virus. Here, we compared the sensitivity and specificity of the hemagglutinin inhibition (HI), microneutralization (MN), and Western blot (WB) assays for the detection of human antibodies against avian influenza A (H7N9) virus. HI with horse erythrocytes (hRBCs) and a modified MN assay possessed greater sensitivity than turkey erythrocytes and the standard MN assay, respectively. Using these assays, 80% of tested sera from confirmed H7N9 cases developed detectable antibody to H7N9 after 21 days. To balance sensitivity and specificity, we found serum titers of ≥20 (MN) or 160 (HI) samples were most effective in determining seropositive to H7N9 virus. Single serum with HI titers of 20?80 or MN titer of 10 could be validated by each other or WB assay. Unlike serum collected from adult or elderly populations, the antibody response in children with mild disease was low or undetectable. These combinations of assays will be useful in case diagnosis and serologic investigation of human cases.
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Citation: Dong L, Bo H, Bai T, Gao R, Dong J, et al. (2014) A Combination of Serological Assays to Detect Human Antibodies to the Avian Influenza A H7N9 Virus. PLoS ONE 9(4): e95612. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095612
Editor: Zhiping Ye, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, United States of America
Received: November 4, 2013; Accepted: March 27, 2014; Published: April 22, 2014
Copyright: ? 2014 Dong et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973) of China (2011CB504704, to Dr. Shu); the Emergency Research Project on human infection with avian influenza H7N9 virus from the National Ministry of Science and Technology (No. KJYJ-2013-01-01 to Dr. Shu); and National Mega-projects for Infectious Diseases (2012ZX10004501-004-002 to Dr. Dong). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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Open Access / Peer-Reviewed / Research Article
A Combination of Serological Assays to Detect Human Antibodies to the Avian Influenza A H7N9 Virus
Libo Dong, Hong Bo, Tian Bai, Rongbao Gao, Jie Dong, Ye Zhang, Junfeng Guo, Shumei Zou, Jianfang Zhou, Yun Zhu, Li Xin, Xiaodan Li, Cuiling Xu, [ ... ], Dayan Wang, Yuelong Shu
Published: April 22, 2014 / DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095612
Abstract
Human infection with avian influenza A H7N9 virus was first identified in March 2013 and represents an ongoing threat to public health. There is a need to optimize serological methods for this new influenza virus. Here, we compared the sensitivity and specificity of the hemagglutinin inhibition (HI), microneutralization (MN), and Western blot (WB) assays for the detection of human antibodies against avian influenza A (H7N9) virus. HI with horse erythrocytes (hRBCs) and a modified MN assay possessed greater sensitivity than turkey erythrocytes and the standard MN assay, respectively. Using these assays, 80% of tested sera from confirmed H7N9 cases developed detectable antibody to H7N9 after 21 days. To balance sensitivity and specificity, we found serum titers of ≥20 (MN) or 160 (HI) samples were most effective in determining seropositive to H7N9 virus. Single serum with HI titers of 20?80 or MN titer of 10 could be validated by each other or WB assay. Unlike serum collected from adult or elderly populations, the antibody response in children with mild disease was low or undetectable. These combinations of assays will be useful in case diagnosis and serologic investigation of human cases.
_____
Citation: Dong L, Bo H, Bai T, Gao R, Dong J, et al. (2014) A Combination of Serological Assays to Detect Human Antibodies to the Avian Influenza A H7N9 Virus. PLoS ONE 9(4): e95612. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095612
Editor: Zhiping Ye, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, United States of America
Received: November 4, 2013; Accepted: March 27, 2014; Published: April 22, 2014
Copyright: ? 2014 Dong et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973) of China (2011CB504704, to Dr. Shu); the Emergency Research Project on human infection with avian influenza H7N9 virus from the National Ministry of Science and Technology (No. KJYJ-2013-01-01 to Dr. Shu); and National Mega-projects for Infectious Diseases (2012ZX10004501-004-002 to Dr. Dong). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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