EVALUATION OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES FOR GENERIC DETECTION OF FLAVIVIRUSES BY ELISA

Three monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) specific for the envelope (E) prote in of flaviviruses were evaluated for use in an antigen capture ELISA. Three combinations of Mabs and a combination of polyclonal antibodies (Pabs) were evaluated in antigen capture ELISAs for their ability to detect 18 flaviviruses. The Mab ELISAs detected 50% of flavivirus anti gens with a sensitivity between 1 and 9 x 10(4) ng viral protein/ml, h owever, none of the ELISAs generic detection of flaviviruses, being un able to detect tick-borne flaviviruses and some mosquito-borne flavivi ruses. The inability of the ELISAs to detect tick-borne flaviviruses i s thought to be due to the conformation of surface epitopes, which the Mabs were unable to recognise. This war again observed using recombin ant TEE virus prM/E protein as antigen in direct and antigen capture E LISAs. The Mabs reacted with the prM/E protein when it was denatured b y binding directly onto the solid phase, but the antibodies were unabl e to detect the native protein in antigen capture ELISAs. The antigen capture ELISAs evaluated in this study were considered to be unsuitabl e for the generic detection of flaviviruses, but may provide a sensiti ve diagnostic assay for specific flavivirus infection.