word count: 200 words 35 Text word count: 3612 words 36 Abstract (200 words) 37 Background 38 Recent Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreaks challenged existing laboratory diagnostic 39 standards, especially for serology-based methods. Due to the genetic and structural 40 similarity of ZIKV with other flaviviruses, this results in cross-reactive antibodies 41 which confounds serological interpretations. 42 43 Methods 44 Plasma from Singapore ZIKV patients was screened longitudinally for antibody 45 responses and neutralizing capacities against ZIKV. Samples from healthy controls, 46ZIKV and DENV patients were further assessed using ZIKV and DENV peptides of 47 precursor membrane (prM), envelope (E) or non-structural 1 (NS1) viral proteins in a 48 peptide-based ELISA for epitope identification. Identified epitopes were re-validated 49 and diagnostically evaluated using sera of patients with DENV, bacteria or unknown 50 infections from Thailand. 51 52
Results 53Long-lasting ZIKV-neutralizing antibodies were elicited during ZIKV infection. 54Thirteen potential linear B-cell epitopes were identified and of these, four common 55 flavivirus, three ZIKV-specific, and one DENV-specific differential epitopes had more 56 than 50% sensitivities and specificities. Notably, ZIKV-specific peptide 26 on domain 57 I/II of E protein (amino acid residues 271-288) presented 80% sensitivity and 85.7% 58 specificity. Importantly, the differential epitopes also showed significance in 59 differentiating non-flavivirus patient samples. 60 61 Conclusions 62 Linear B-cell epitope candidates to differentiate ZIKV and DENV infections were 63 identified, providing the first step towards the design of a much-needed serology-64 based assay. 65 66 Methods 97 Ethics statement 98 Written informed consent was obtained from participants in accordance with the 99 tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Study protocols of Singapore ZIKV (2016-2018) 100 and DENV (2010-2012) patient cohorts were approved by the SingHealth 101 Centralized Institutional Review Board (CIRB Ref: 2016/2219) and National 102 Healthcare Group (NHG) Domain Specific Review Board (DSRB-E-2009/432) 103 respectively. Specimens from Singapore healthy donors (2010-2015) and patients 104 from Thailand (2011-2013) were collected in accordance to study guidelines of 105 approval numbers: NUS-IRB 09-256 and NUS-IRB 10-445; MUTM 2011-008-01, 106 OXTREC 42-10 and TCAB-01-11 respectively. 107 108 Study subjects and sample collection 109
Singapore ZIKV patients 110Collection of specimens from subjects during the ZIKV outbreak in 2016 was 111 previously described [24]. Briefly, 65 patients that were RT-PCR positive for ZIKV in 112 whole blood or urine, and negative for DENV RT-PCR were enrolled [25]. Whole 113 blood specimens were collected in EDTA-coated vacutainer tubes (Becton 114 Dickinson) after peripheral venipuncture and were centrifuged at 12000 rpm for 10 115 min. Plasma was collected and heat-inactivated for 30 min at 56°C before storage at 116 -80°C. Specimens were obtained over a period of si...