FluChip-8G Insight: HA and NA subtyping of potentially pandemic influenza A viruses in a single assay

[tetano]

Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2019 Oct 13. doi: 10.1111/irv.12683. [Epub ahead of print] FluChip-8G Insight: HA and NA subtyping of potentially pandemic influenza A viruses in a single assay.

Toth E¹, Dawson ED¹, Taylor AW¹, Stoughton RS¹, Blair RH¹, Johnson JE Jr¹, Slinskey A¹, Fessler R¹, Smith CB², Talbot S², Rowlen K¹.
Author information

1 InDevR, Inc., Boulder, CO, USA. 2 Influenza Division, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Global influenza surveillance in humans and animals is a critical component of pandemic preparedness. The FluChip-8G Insight assay was developed to subtype both seasonal and potentially pandemic influenza viruses in a single assay with a same day result. FluChip-8G Insight uses whole gene segment RT-PCR-based amplification to provide robustness against genetic drift and subsequent microarray detection with artificial neural network-based data interpretation.
OBJECTIVES:

The objective of this study was to verify and validate the performance of the FluChip-8G Insight assay for the detection and positive identification of human and animal origin non-seasonal influenza A specimens.
METHODS:

We evaluated the ability of the FluChip-8G Insight technology to type and HA and NA subtype a sample set consisting of 297 results from 180 unique non-seasonal influenza A strains (49 unique subtypes).
RESULTS:

FluChip-8G Insight demonstrated a positive percent agreement ≥93% for 5 targeted HA and 5 targeted NA subtypes except for H9 (88%), and negative percent agreement exceeding 95% for all targeted subtypes.
CONCLUSIONS:

The FluChip-8G Insight neural network-based algorithm used for virus identification performed well over a data set of 297 na?ve sample results, and can be easily updated to improve performance on emerging strains without changing the underlying assay chemistry.
? 2019 The Authors. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


KEYWORDS:

influenza; multiplex PCR; neural networks; oligonucleotide microarrays; pandemics; validation studies

PMID: 31608599 DOI: 10.1111/irv.12683