Discovery of Yellow Fever Virus-Specific Epitopes for Development of an Accurate Serodiagnostic Assay

DiscoveryofYellowFever VirusSpecificEpitopesforDevelopmentofanAccurateSerodiagnostic AssayAbstractAntibodies to many pathogenic viruses can be detected in bloodserum and or salivaAmong theseare many arbovirusesthat share endemic regions in the western hemisphere and in other parts of theworldThese include the related flaviviruses yellow fever virusYFVdengue virusDENVZika virusZIKVand West Nile virusWNVas well as the alphavirus chikungunya virusCHIKVAntibodies tothese viruses are often crossreactivemaking diagnostics for a particular virus challengingThe currentoutbreakofyellowfeverinBrazilandthehighmortalityassociatedwiththisdiseaseaswellastherecenthistoryofoutbreaksinSouthAmericaandAfricacreateanurgentneedforYFVspecificserodiagnosticsto aid control of the spread of yellow feverMoreoversuch diagnostics would facilitateclinicalandpublichealtheffortsagainsttheseandotherrelatedarbovirusesWeproposeanovelstrategy to develop methods for specific and sensitive detection of antibodies against YFV that do notcross react with other arbovirusesWe will employ an innovativecomprehensive proteomic approachwith a unique serum sample collection that will allow discovery and validation of specific biomarkerscapableofdistinguishingYFVfromotherarbovirusesThiswillallowustodevelopaspecificandsensitive test for YFV infection in Phase II of this projectA practicalsensitive and specific test for YFVinfectionisahighprioritygoalduetotherecentoutbreakofyellowfeverinBrazilpossiblefutureoutbreaks and the likely spread of yellow fever to southern US states bordering the Gulf of Mexico andPuerto Rico where Aedes sppmosquitos might rapidly spread the infectionDiscoveryofYellowFever VirusSpecificEpitopesforDevelopmentofanAccurateSerodiagnostic AssayAbstractThere is an urgent need for a specific diagnostic test for yellow fever virussince yellow fever is oftenfatal and could spread to the USA from the recent outbreak in Brazilas Zika virus didSuch a test isdifficulttomakeduetocrossreactivitywithothervirusesWeproposeanovelandcomprehensivestrategy to develop a specific test for yellow fever virus to help block the spread of yellow fever to theUSA and Puerto Rico