title: Development of an ELISA system for tick-borne encephalitis virus infection in rodents.
abstract: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus causes severe encephalitis with serious sequelae in humans. An epizootiological survey of wild rodents is effective to detect TBE virus-endemic areas; however, limited serological diagnostic methods are available to detect anti-TBE virus antibodies in wild rodents. In this study, ELISAs for the detection of rodent antibodies against the TBE virus were developed using two recombinant proteins, domain III of the E protein (EdIII) and subviral particles (SPs), as the antigens. As compared with the neutralization test, the ELISA using EdIII had 77.1% sensitivity and 80.0% specificity, and the ELISA using SPs had 91.4% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Furthermore, when the ELISAs were applied to the epizootiological survey in the TBE virus-endemic area, both of the ELISAs was able to detect wild rodents with TBE virus-specific antibodies. This is the first study to show that ELISAs using recombinant antigens can be safe and useful in the detection of TBE virus-infected wild rodents in epizootiological research.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Public Health, Department of Environmental Veterinary Sciences, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Kita 18, Nishi 9, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0818, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayae
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ikawa-Yoshida
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshii
authors.forename: Kazue
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuwahara
authors.forename: Mayumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Obara
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kariwa
authors.forename: Ikuo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Takashima
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000276:immunology; D003411:Arvicolinae; D002460:Cell Line; D006224:Cricetinae; D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D051189:Murinae; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral