title: Improvement of a rapid diagnosis kit to detect either influenza A or B virus infections.
abstract: To improve the sensitivity of a kit, ESPLINE INFLUENZA A&B for rapid diagnosis of influenza by detecting influenza A or B virus specific nucleoproteins (NP), the ESPLINE INFLUENZA A&B-N was developed by using newly established monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to the respective NP molecule. MAbs FVA2-11 and FrB1-03 recognize the epitope on the amino acid region 59-130aa of the NP molecule of influenza A virus, and that on the region 72-191aa of the NP of influenza B virus, respectively. The new kit detected influenza A and B virus antigens with a detection limit of 10(2.0)-10 (2.7) pfu/test, which is 4-1000 times higher than that of the original kit. Importantly, this kit detected each of influenza A viruses of the known hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes (H1-H15) including the H5N1 viruses recently isolated from human and avian sources in Asia. The kit also detected all of the 15 representative influenza B virus strains tested. The ESPLINE INFLUENZA A&B-N is thus a rapid and highly sensitive and specific kit for the diagnosis of either influenza A or B virus infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0818, Japan.
authors.forename: Gui-Rong
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakoda
authors.forename: Aaron S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mweene
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Hidetaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Minakawa
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kida
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D009980:Influenza A virus / Q000276:immunology*; D009981:Influenza B virus / Q000276:immunology*; D009698:Nucleoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D009976:Orthomyxoviridae Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; D009698:Nucleoproteins; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic