Abstract
Influenza viruses are an important cause of disease in both humans and animals, and their detection and characterization can take weeks. In this study, we sought to compare classical virology techniques with a new rapid microarray method for the detection and characterization of a very diverse, panel of animal, environmental, and human clinical or field specimens that were molecularly positive for influenza A alone (n = 111), influenza B alone (n = 3), both viruses (n = 13), or influenza negative (n = 2) viruses. All influenza virus positive samples in this study were first subtyped by traditional laboratory methods, and later evaluated using the FluChip-8G Insight Assay (InDevR Inc. Boulder, CO) in laboratories at Duke University (USA) or at Duke Kunshan University (China). The FluChip-8G Insight multiplexed assay agreed with classical virologic techniques 59 (54.1%) of 109 influenza A-positive, 3 (100%) of the 3 influenza B-positive, 0 (0%) of 10 both influenza A- and B-positive samples, 75% of 24 environmental samples including those positive for H1, H3, H7, H9, N1, and N9 strains, and 80% of 22 avian influenza samples. It had difficulty with avian N6 types and swine H3 and N2 influenza specimens. The FluChip-8G Insight assay performed well with most human, environmental, and animal samples, but had some difficulty with samples containing multiple viral strains and with specific animal influenza strains. As classical virology methods are often iterative and can take weeks, the FluChip-8G Insight Assay rapid results (time range 8 to 12 h) offers considerable time savings. As the FluChip-8G analysis algorithm is expected to improve over time with addition of new subtypes and sample matrices, the FluChip-8G Insight Assay has considerable promise for rapid characterization of novel influenza viruses affecting humans or animals.
Highlights
Infectious diseases threatening human and animal populations are increasingly emerging from zoonotic sources
Our goal in this study was to examine a panel of animal, environmental, and human field samples collected in both the United States and China with evidence of influenza A or B virus against both classical virologic techniques and a new microarray assay, the FluChip-8G (FC8G) Insight Assay
Our overall goal was to determine if FluChip-8G Insight Assay technology was comparable to standard subtyping techniques, understanding that the technology was to date untested on animal-origin samples in challenging environmental and aerosol matrices
Summary
Infectious diseases threatening human and animal populations are increasingly emerging from zoonotic sources. In regions, such as Southeast Asia, where there is intense and frequent contact between humans and animals, viral transmission between species can be rapid and quickly cause epidemics [1]. Our multinational team has previously collected field samples for influenza viruses in both the United States [4, 5] and in China [6, 7]. Our goal in this study was to examine a panel of animal, environmental, and human field samples collected in both the United States and China with evidence of influenza A or B virus against both classical virologic techniques and a new microarray assay, the FluChip-8G (FC8G) Insight Assay CO) at our laboratories at Duke University in Durham, NC and at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in Kunshan China
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