The Open Virology Journal
2012, 6 : 29-37Published online 2012 March 29. DOI: 10.2174/1874357901206010029
Publisher ID: TOVJ-6-29
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Development and Evaluation of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Dengue Capsid
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
3 Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522, USA
4 Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, DUKE-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Immunology an& Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Tel: 858-784-8180; Fax: 858-784-8831; E-mail: gallay@scripps.edu
ABSTRACT
The astonishing speed with which Dengue has spread across the world and the severity of its infection make Dengue a prime threat to human life worldwide. Unfortunately, to date there are no effective vaccines or treatments against Dengue. Since only a few assays permit rapid and sensitive detection of Dengue, we developed a specific antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the abundant structural Dengue-2 capsid protein. We showed that the ELISA allows rapid and sensitive detection of Dengue-2 replication in various cell lines including human and mosquito cells. Using anti-capsid antibodies, we demonstrated that the capsid ELISA is as accurate as other well-characterized Dengue assays such as intracellular FACS staining (IFSA) and fluorescent focus (FFA) assays. The capsid ELISA not only represents a useful tool for in vitro basic research, but it may also represent a valuable diagnostic tool for Dengue infection in patients.