Development of a peptide ELISA for discrimination between serological responses to equine herpesvirus type 1 and 4

LANG A, DE VRIES M, FEINEIS S, MÜLLER E, OSTERRIEDER N, DAMIANI AM

JOURNAL OF VIROLOGICAL METHODS

Elsevier

Año: 2013 vol. 193 p. 667 - 673

0166-0934

tA peptide-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for discrimination between serologicalresponses to equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) and 4 (EHV-4) was developed. Three and four peptidesfor EHV-1 and EHV-4, respectively, were designed and studied initially in the ELISA using sera fromfoals infected experimentally. The most promising peptide pair, derived from EHV-1 glycoprotein E andEHV-4 glycoprotein G, was evaluated further using acute and convalescent sera from horses infectedexperimentally and naturally as well as a panel of horse field sera. Ten pre- and post-vaccination serumpairs were similarly tested in the type-specific ELISA. The peptide ELISA was able to identify horses whichhad been infected with EHV-1 or EHV-4 as derived from the results using acute and convalescent seracollected from natural outbreaks. When applied to a set of field samples, the assay proved robust withrespect to determining the EHV-1 and EHV-4 antibody status. Also, the peptide ELISA was able to detecttype-specific seroconversion for EHV-1 in vaccinated animals. With further validation, the EHV-1/EHV-4peptide ELISA described in this study could serve as a reliable and cost-effective alternative to currentmethods for serological EHV-1 and EHV-4 diagnosis.