Development of a microsphere-based serologic multiplexed fluorescent immunoassay and a reverse transcriptase PCR assay to detect murine norovirus 1 infection in mice

Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 2005 Oct;12(10):1145-51. doi: 10.1128/CDLI.12.10.1145-1151.2005.

Abstract

Murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1) is a newly recognized pathogen of mice that causes lethal infection in mice deficient in components of the innate immune response but not in wild-type 129 mice. In this study, in vitro-propagated MNV-1 was used as antigen to develop a multiplexed fluorescent immunoassay (MFI) to detect antibodies to MNV-1 in infected mice. The MNV-1 MFI was 100% specific and 100% sensitive in detecting anti-MNV-1 antibody in sera from experimentally infected mice. Testing of a large number of mouse serum samples (n = 12,639) submitted from contemporary laboratory mouse colonies in the United States and Canada revealed that 22.1% of these sera contained antibodies to MNV-1, indicating infection with MNV-1 is widespread in research mice. In addition, a reverse transcriptase PCR primer pair with a sensitivity of 25 virus copies was developed and used to demonstrate that MNV-1 RNA could be detected in the spleen, mesenteric lymph node, and jejunum from some experimentally infected mice 5 weeks postinoculation. These diagnostic assays provide the necessary tools to define the MNV-1 infection status of research mice and to aid in the establishment of laboratory mouse colonies free of MNV-1 infection.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Antigens, Viral / blood
  • Caliciviridae Infections / diagnosis*
  • Canada
  • Fluoroimmunoassay / methods*
  • Mice / virology*
  • Microspheres*
  • Norovirus / isolation & purification*
  • RNA, Viral / analysis
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Tissue Distribution
  • United States

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Antigens, Viral
  • RNA, Viral