Zika virus serological diagnosis: commercial tests and monoclonal antibodies as tools

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV), an emerging arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) of the Flaviviridae family, is a current issue worldwide, particularly because of the congenital and neurological syndromes associated with infection by this virus. As the initial clinical symptoms of all diseases caused by this group are very similar, clinical diagnosis is difficult. Furthermore, laboratory diagnostic efforts have failed to identify specific and accurate tests for each virus of the Flaviviridae family due to the cross-reactivity of these viruses in serum samples. This situation has resulted in underreporting of the diseases caused by flaviviruses. However, many companies developed commercial diagnostic tests after the recent ZIKV outbreak. Moreover, health regulatory agencies have approved different commercial tests to extend the monitoring of ZIKV infections. Considering that a specific and sensitive diagnostic method for estimating risk and evaluating ZIKV propagation is still needed, this review aims to provide an update of the main commercially approved serological diagnostics test by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA). Additionally, we present the technologies used for monoclonal antibody production as a tool for the development of diagnostic tests and applications of these antibodies in detecting ZIKV infections worldwide.

Zika a Vector Borne Disease Detected in Newer States of India Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…While seven sequences of the DENV-4 clustered with sequences from Tamil Nadu and belonged to genotype I (Figures 4A-D). Of the CHIKV positive samples, the Ct range was higher (Asadi-Pooya, 2016;Warrier and Ashokan, 2016;Landry and St George, 2017;Lina Villa et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2017;Ward et al, 2018;Yadav et al, 2018Yadav et al, , 2020Freitas et al, 2020;Malhotra et al, 2020;Silva et al, 2020;Low et al, 2021;Stiasny et al, 2021) and NGS could not lead to giving useful sequences to be used for analysis. The amino acid changes in the NS5 protein of DENV-1-DENV-4 observed with respect to its reference are depicted in Supplementary Figures 2, 5 respectively.…”

Zika Virus Overview: Transmission, Origin, Pathogenesis, Animal Model and Diagnosis

“…Finding the best diagnostic test for detecting ZIKV depends on the stage of the disease, which is divided into two phases: acute and convalescent [133]. During the acute phase, infection occurs during early stages wherein the viruses replicates in the infected cells and causes the host to develop viremia.…”

“…The convalescent phase is the opposite of the acute phase; it begins during the late stage of infection, when IgG antibodies are more specific in their response to the developing virus. An ideal diagnostic test should have high sensitivity and specificity to correctly identify individuals positive for the virus without detecting those negative for the virus [133]. The diagnostic tests include molecular and serological assays.…”

“…The diagnostic tests include molecular and serological assays. Molecular assay is mainly used for the detection of genetic variants, whereas serological assays can be used to detect previous circulating virus and measure patient immune response to the virus by detecting antibodies to the virus in the serum [133]. Clinical evaluation alone is not sufficient to truly understand ZIKV diagnosis, because of excessive cross-reactivity with other arboviruses.…”

“…The RT-PCR assay is a reliable diagnostic method but is suitable only when the infection remains in the acute phase, because the viral RNA can still be identified in body fluids [133]. RT-PCR assay sensitivity is important to avoid false-negative results.…”