Journal of clinical microbiology
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J. Clin. Microbiol. · Feb 2012
Comparative StudyPreparation and evaluation of recombinant severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus nucleocapsid protein for detection of total antibodies in human and animal sera by double-antigen sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
The recent emergence of the human infection confirmed to be caused by severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in China is of global concern. Safe diagnostic immunoreagents for determination of human and animal seroprevalence in epidemiological investigations are urgently needed. This paper describes the cloning and expression of the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SFTSV. ⋯ SFTSV-confirmed human and animal sera from both Anhui and Hubei Provinces in China reacted with N protein in this ELISA, suggesting no major antigenic variation between geographically disparate virus isolates and the suitability of this assay in nationwide application. ELISA results showed that 3.6% of the human serum samples and 47.7% of the animal field serum samples were positive for SFTSV antibodies, indicating that SFTSV has circulated widely in China. This assay, which is simple to operate, poses no biohazard risk, does not require sophisticated equipment, and can be used in disease surveillance programs, particularly in the screening of large numbers of samples from various animal species.