Development of serological assays for determining MERS coronavirus neutralizing antibody responses

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26450418
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Veterinary medical science
• Research Institution: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
• Principal Investigator: FUKUSHI SHUETSU 国立感染症研究所, ウイルス第一部, 主任研究官 (80373398)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: MERSコロナウイルス / 血清疫学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Since discovering the MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) as a causative agent of severe respiratory illness in the middle east in 2012, a serological antibody testing has been conducted not only for assessing antibody responses of infected patients but also for investigating zoonotic origins of MERS-CoV. In this study, we developed a high-throughput virus neutralization assay using pseudotyped vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-bearing MERS-CoV S protein (MERSpv). In addition, we generated monoclonal antibody（MAb）against S protein, and developed an MAb-based competitive ELISA (cELISA) to detect MERS-CoV antibody. Both VSV pseudotype-based and cELISA are useful for the epidemiological investigation on MERS-CoV infection.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学