Novel triplex nucleic acid lateral flow immunoassay for rapid detection of Nipah virus, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Reston ebolavirus

Abstract

AbstractWe report the development of a triplex nucleic acid lateral flow immunoassay (NALFIA) for the detection of the genomes of Nipah virus (NiV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Reston ebolavirus (REBOV), which are intended for screening bats as well as other hosts and reservoirs of these three viruses. Our triplex NALFIA is a two-step assay format: the target nucleic acid in the sample is first amplified using tagged primers, and the tagged dsDNA amplicons are captured by antibodies immobilized on the NALFIA device, resulting in signal development from the binding of a streptavidin-colloidal gold conjugate to a biotin tag on the captured amplicons. Triplex amplification of the N gene of NiV, the UpE gene of MERS-CoV, and the Vp40 gene of REBOV was optimized, and three compatible combinations of hapten labels and antibodies were identified for end point detection. The lowest RNA copy numbers detected by the triplex NALFIA were 8.21e4 for the NiV N target, 7.09e1 for the MERS-CoV UpE target, and 1.83e4 for the REBOV Vp40 target. Using simulated samples, the sensitivity and specificity for MERS-CoV and REBOV targets were estimated to be 100%, while the sensitivity and specificity for the NiV target were 91% and 93.3%, respectively. The compliance rate between triplex NALFIA and real-time RT‒PCR was 92% for the NiV N target and 100% for the MERS-CoV UpE and REBOV Vp40 targets.