A double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of soft-shelled turtle iridovirus antigens

Megalocytivirus and Other Members of the Family Iridoviridae in Finfish: A Review of the Etiology, Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Prevention and Control

Aquaculture has expanded to become the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world. However, its expansion has come under threat due to an increase in diseases caused by pathogens such as iridoviruses commonly found in aquatic environments used for fish farming. Of the seven members belonging to the family Iridoviridae, the three genera causing diseases in fish comprise ranaviruses, lymphocystiviruses and megalocytiviruses. These three genera are serious impediments to the expansion of global aquaculture because of their tropism for a wide range of farmed-fish species in which they cause high mortality. As economic losses caused by these iridoviruses in aquaculture continue to rise, the urgent need for effective control strategies increases. As a consequence, these viruses have attracted a lot of research interest in recent years. The functional role of some of the genes that form the structure of iridoviruses has not been elucidated. There is a lack of information on the predisposing factors leading to iridovirus infections in fish, an absence of information on the risk factors leading to disease outbreaks, and a lack of data on the chemical and physical properties of iridoviruses needed for the implementation of biosecurity control measures. Thus, the synopsis put forth herein provides an update of knowledge gathered from studies carried out so far aimed at addressing the aforesaid informational gaps. In summary, this review provides an update on the etiology of different iridoviruses infecting finfish and epidemiological factors leading to the occurrence of disease outbreaks. In addition, the review provides an update on the cell lines developed for virus isolation and culture, the diagnostic tools used for virus detection and characterization, the current advances in vaccine development and the use of biosecurity in the control of iridoviruses in aquaculture. Overall, we envision that the information put forth in this review will contribute to developing effective control strategies against iridovirus infections in aquaculture.

Production and characterization of a single-chain variable fragment antibody from a site-saturation mutagenesis library derived from the anti-Cry1A monoclonal antibody

There are plenty of applications of Cry1A toxins (Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac) in genetically modified crops, and it is necessary to establish corresponding detection methods. In this study, a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) with high affinities to Cry1A toxins was produced. First, the variable regions of heavy (V_H) and light chain (V_L) were amplified from hybridoma cell 5B5 which secrete anti-Cry1A monoclonal antibody (mAb) and then spliced into scFv-5B5 by overlap extension polymerase chain reaction (SOE-PCR). Subsequently, site-saturation mutagenesis was performed after homology modeling and molecular docking, which showed that asparagine³⁵, phenylalanine³⁶, isoleucine¹⁰⁴, tyrosine¹⁰⁵, and serine¹⁹⁶, respectively, located in V_H complementarity-determining region (CDR1 and CDR3) and V_L framework region (FR3) were key amino acid sites. Then, the mutagenesis scFv library (1.35 × 10⁵ CFU/mL) was constructed and a mutant scFv-2G12 with equilibrium dissociation constant (K_D) value of 9.819 × 10^-9 M against Cry1Ab toxin, which was lower than scFv-5B5 (2.025 × 10^-8 M) was obtained by biopanning. Then, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was established with limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 4.6-9.2 and 11.1-17.1 ng mL^-1 respectively for scFv-2G12, which were lower than scFv-5B5 (12.4-22.0 and 23.6-39.7 ng mL^-1). Results indicated the promising prospect of scFv-2G12 used for the detection of Cry1A toxins.

Ranaviruses and reptiles

Ranaviruses can infect many vertebrate classes including fish, amphibians and reptiles, but for the most part, research has been focused on non-reptilian hosts, amphibians in particular. More recently, reports of ranaviral infections of reptiles are increasing with over 12 families of reptiles currently susceptible to ranaviral infection. Reptiles are infected by ranaviruses that are genetically similar to, or the same as, the viruses that infect amphibians and fish; however, physiological and ecological differences result in differences in study designs. Although ranaviral disease in reptiles is often influenced by host species, viral strain and environmental differences, general trends in pathogenesis are emerging. More experimental studies using a variety of reptile species, life stages and routes of transmission are required to unravel the complexity of wild ranavirus transmission. Further, our understanding of the reptilian immune response to ranaviral infection is still lacking, although the considerable amount of work conducted in amphibians will serve as a useful guide for future studies in reptiles.

An optimized double-antibody sandwich ELISA for quantitative detection of WSSV in artificially infected crayfish

Developing a rapid, accurate and quantitative method for detecting white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is extremely urgent and critical for reducing the risk of white spot disease outbreaks. In the present work, an optimized double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) was developed for quantitative detection of WSSV. The method employed rabbit polyclonal antibodies against WSSV as the capture antibody and previously produced anti-WSSV monoclonal antibodies as the detector antibody. A standard curve of the log concentration of WSSV versus OD value was established, which was linear in the concentration range of 120-7680ng/mL, and the linear regression equation was y=0.166x-0.151. Viral proteins in different tissues of crayfish (Procambarus clarkia) post artificial infection with WSSV were quantitatively measured using the DAS-ELISA. WSSV proliferated quickly within 60h post infection and gradually slowed down afterwards. According to the linear regression relationship, the viral proteins in hemolymph, gut and gonad were firstly able to be quantified at 24h post infection with the concentrations of 186, 158 and 128ng/mL, respectively. These three tissues also contained higher viral proteins than the gill, heart, hepatopancreas and muscle during the entire infection period. The viral protein concentration in gut reached the highest level of 6220ng/mL at 72h post infection. Real time quantitative PCR was also used to detect the dynamic change of viral copies in crayfish hemolymph post WSSV infection, with similar results for both assays. The developed DAS-ELISA could detect WSSV propagation from initial to moribund stage in infected crayfish and demonstrated potential application for diagnosis of WSSV.

Production and application of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against Spiroplasma eriocheiris

A new species of spiroplasma, Spiroplasma eriocheiris (S. eriocheiris), was identified as a lethal pathogen of tremor disease (TD) in Chinese mitten crab recently. In order to acquire appropriate biological and diagnostic tools for characterizing this newly discovered pathogen, 5 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and a polyclonal antibody (pAb) against S. eriocheiris were produced. Among the mAbs, 6F5, 7C8 and 12H5 lead to the deformation of S. eriocheiris. A peptide sequence, YMRDMQSGLPRY was identified as a mimic motif of MreB that is the cell shape determining protein of S. eriocheiris interacting with 3 mAbs. Furthermore, a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) for detection of S. eriocheiris was established using the mAb and pAb we prepared. It detected as low as 0.1 μg/mL of S. eriocheiris. No cross-reaction was observed with three other common bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus subtilis) and the hemolymph samples of healthy Eriocheir sinensis. Collectively, our results indicated that the mAbs and pAb we prepared could be used in the analysis of S. eriocheiris membrane proteins mimotope and development of a diagnostic kit for S. eriocheiris infections.

Evaluation of a loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay for rapid diagnosis of soft-shelled turtle iridovirus

Softshelled turtle iridovirus (STIV) is the first Asian iridovirus isolated from reptiles, which infects soft-shelled turtles severely and leads to "Red neck disease" associated with high mortality. A set of four specific primers was designed by targeting the STIV Thymidine kinase (TK) gene and amplified STIV DNA specifically under optimized amplification conditions at 63°C for 60 min. The sensitivity of the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay was found to be 20 copies/μl of STIV DNA. To evaluate the application of the LAMP assay for detection of STIV in clinical samples, 223 samples suspected of STIV infection from turtle tissues were tested by the LAMP assay and by cell-based virus isolation. A 78.5% concordance was observed between the results of the two methods. In this study, a robust and simple LAMP assay for rapid detection of STIV was developed and evaluated, which is the first suitable for potential diagnosis and helping to monitor STIV infections in the aquaculture industry.