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Multiplexed Isothermal Amplification Based Diagnostic Platform to Detect Zika, Chikungunya, and Dengue 1

Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses are transmitted by mosquitoes, causing diseases with similar patient symptoms. However, they have different ...

Firebird Biomolecular Sciences LLC

Mosquito-borne arboviruses are emerging world-wide as important human and animal pathogens. This makes assays for their accurate and rapid identification essential for public health, epidemiological, ecological studies. Over the past decade, many mono- and multiplexed assays targeting arboviruses nucleic acids have been reported. None has become established for the routine identification of multiple viruses in a "single tube" setting. With increasing multiplexing, the detection of viral RNAs is complicated by noise, false positives and negatives. In this study, an assay was developed that avoids these problems by combining two new kinds of nucleic acids emerging from the field of synthetic biology. The first is a "self-avoiding molecular recognition system" (SAMRS), which enables high levels of multiplexing. The second is an "artificially expanded genetic information system" (AEGIS), which enables clean PCR amplification in nested PCR formats. A conversion technology was used to place AEGIS component into amplicon, improving their efficiency of hybridization on Luminex beads. When Luminex "liquid microarrays" are exploited for downstream detection, this combination supports single-tube PCR amplification assays that can identify 22 mosquito-borne RNA viruses from the genera Flavivirus, Alphavirus, Orthobunyavirus. The assay differentiates between closely-related viruses, as dengue, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, and the California serological group. The performance and the sensitivity of the assay were evaluated with dengue viruses and infected mosquitoes; as few as 6-10 dengue virions can be detected in a single mosquito.

High-throughput multiplexed xMAP Luminex array panel for detection of twenty two medically important mosquito-borne arboviruses based on innovations in synthetic biology.

This paper combines two advances to detect MERS-CoV, the causative agent of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, that have emerged over the past few years from the new field of "synthetic biology". Both are based on an older concept, where molecular beacons are used as the downstream detection of viral RNA in biological mixtures followed by reverse transcription PCR amplification. The first advance exploits the artificially expanded genetic information systems (AEGIS). AEGIS adds nucleotides to the four found in standard DNA and RNA (xNA); AEGIS nucleotides pair orthogonally to the A:T and G:C pairs. Placing AEGIS components in the stems of molecular beacons is shown to lower noise by preventing unwanted stem invasion by adventitious natural xNA. This should improve the signal-to-noise ratio of molecular beacons operating in complex biological mixtures. The second advance introduces a nicking enzyme that allows a single target molecule to activate more than one beacon, allowing "signal amplification". Combining these technologies in primers with components of a self-avoiding molecular recognition system (SAMRS), we detect 50 copies of MERS-CoV RNA in a multiplexed respiratory virus panel by generating fluorescence signal visible to human eye and/or camera.

Standard and AEGIS nicking molecular beacons detect amplicons from the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) represents a growing and global concern for public health that needs inexpensive and convenient methods to collect mosquitoes as potential carriers so that they can be preserved, stored and transported for later and/or remote analysis. Reported here is a cellulose-based paper, derivatized with quaternary ammonium groups ("Q-paper") that meets these needs. In a series of tests, infected mosquito bodies were squashed directly on Q-paper. Aqueous ammonia was then added on the mosquito bodies to release viral RNA that adsorbed on the cationic surface via electrostatic interactions. The samples were then stored (frozen) or transported. For analysis, the CHIKV nucleic acids were eluted from the Q-paper and PCR amplified in a workflow, previously developed, that also exploited two nucleic acid innovations, ("artificially expanded genetic information systems", AEGIS, and "self-avoiding molecular recognition systems", SAMRS). The amplicons were then analyzed by a Luminex hybridization assay. This procedure detected CHIKV RNA, if present, in each infected mosquito sample, but not in non-infected counterparts or ddHO samples washes, with testing one week or ten months after sample collection.

Lyudmyla Glushakova

Firebird Biomolecular Sciences LLC

Multiplexed Isothermal Amplification Based Diagnostic Platform to Detect Zika, Chikungunya, and Dengue 1