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Recombinant Truncated Nucleocapsid Protein as Antigen in a Novel Immunoglobulin M Capture Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infection

Department of Virology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan,¹ Department of Virology, National Institute of Hygiene & Epidemiology, (NIHE), Hanoi, Vietnam,² Department of Virology, National Institute of Infectious Disease, Tokyo, Japan³

Received 2 October 2006/ Returned for modification 15 November 2006/ Accepted 20 December 2006

We report the development of an immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MAC-ELISA) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) by using recombinant truncated SARS-CoV nucleocapsid protein as the antigen. The newly developed MAC-ELISA had a specificity and sensitivity of 100% as evaluated by using sera from healthy volunteers and patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS. Using serial serum samples collected from SARS patients, the times to seroconversion were determined by IgM antibody detection after SARS-CoV infection. The median time to seroconversion detection was 8 days (range, 5 to 17 days) after disease onset, and the seroconversion rates after the onset of illness were 33% by the first week, 97% by the second week, and 100% by the third week. Compared with the results of our previous report on the detection of IgG, the median seroconversion time by IgM detection was 3 days earlier and the seroconversion rate by the second week after the illness for IgM was significantly higher than by IgG assay. Our results indicating that the IgM response appears earlier than IgG after SARS-CoV infection in consistent with those for other pathogens. Our newly developed MAC-ELISA system offers a new alternative for the confirmation of SARS-CoV infection.

Published ahead of print on 3 January 2007.

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• Cheng, V. C. C., Lau, S. K. P., Woo, P. C. Y., Yuen, K. Y. (2007). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus as an Agent of Emerging and Reemerging Infection. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 20: 660-694 [Abstract] [Full Text]