Diagnostic system for the detection of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus RNA from suspected infected animals

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 1; p. e0238671
• Main Authors: Park, Eun-sil, Fujita, Osamu, Kimura, Masanobu, Hotta, Akitoyo, Imaoka, Koichi, Shimojima, Masayuki, Saijo, Masayuki, Maeda, Ken, Morikawa, Shigeru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 28.01.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral - immunology; Antigens; Biology and Life Sciences; Bunyaviridae Infections - virology; Cats - virology; Computer and Information Sciences; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Diagnosis; Diagnostic systems; Diagnostic Tests, Routine - methods; DNA; DNA polymerase; Dogs; Domestic animals; Editing; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay - methods; Female; Fever; Fever - diagnosis; Funding; Genetic aspects; Hemorrhage; Hemorrhagic fever; Hemorrhagic Fevers, Viral - diagnosis; Hemorrhagic Fevers, Viral - veterinary; Hemorrhagic Fevers, Viral - virology; Immunoglobulin G - immunology; Immunoglobulin M - immunology; Infectious diseases; Japan; Laboratories; Male; Maximum likelihood method; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Microbiology; Phlebovirus - genetics; Phlebovirus - metabolism; Phylogenetics; Polymerase chain reaction; Research and Analysis Methods; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Reverse transcription; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA viruses; RNA, Viral - blood; Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome - diagnosis; Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome - veterinary; Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome - virology; Signs and symptoms; Software; Thrombocytopenia; Thrombocytopenia - diagnosis; Ticks; Veterinary medicine; Virology; Viruses; Wild animals; Zoonoses; Japan; South Korea; China; Germany
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238671
• ISSN: 1932-6203

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) causes severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and cats. Clinical symptoms of SFTS-infected cats resemble those of SFTS patients, whereas SFTS-contracted cats have high levels of viral RNA loads in the serum and body fluids. Due to the risk of direct infection from SFTS-infected cats to human, it is important to diagnose SFTS-suspected animals. In this study, a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was newly developed to diagnose SFTS-suspected animals without non-specific reactions. Four primer sets were newly designed from consensus sequences constructed from 108 strains of SFTSV. A RT-PCR with these four primer sets successfully and specifically detected four clades of SFTSV. Their limits of detection are 1-10 copies/reaction. Using this RT-PCR, 5 cat cases among 56 SFTS-suspected animal cases were diagnosed as SFTS. From these cats, IgM or IgG against SFTSV were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), but not neutralizing antibodies by plaque reduction neutralization titer (PRNT) test. This phenomenon is similar to those of fatal SFTS patients. This newly developed RT-PCR could detect SFTSV RNA of several clades and from SFTS-suspected animals. In addition to ELISA and PRNT test, the useful laboratory diagnosis systems of SFTS-suspected animals has been made in this study.