Patent ID: 6682883
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: C12Q,G01N,Y02A

Abstract:
A method of diagnosing a mammal as being infected with a predetermined flavivirus by specifically detecting antibodies against said flavivirus in a biological test sample from said mammal, said method comprising the steps of:(a) providing a chimeric virus having the following characteristics: (i) the chimeric virus comprises nucleic acid sequences derived from two different viruses, one nucleic acid sequence is from said predetermined flavivirus structural genes prM-E, the other being a flavivirus that is used as the chimera backbone; (ii) the chimeric virus is capable of replicating; (iii) the chimeric virus is substantially neutralized by antibodies to said predetermined flavivirus and is not substantially neutralized by antibodies to other viruses, including the flavivirus used as the chimera backbone; (iv) the chimeric virus is attenuated compared to said predetermined flavivirus; and (v) the chimeric virus may be safely manipulated in the laboratory at a Biosafety level that is lower than that required for said predetermined flavivirus; (b) providing a biological test sample from said mammal, wherein the presence of said antibodies against said predetermined flavivirus in said sample is not known; (c) contacting said biological sample with said chimeric virus under neutralizing conditions; and (d) determining the presence or amount of infectious virus remaining following step (c), wherein neutralization of infectivity of said chimeric virus by said antibodies in said test sample is a measure of antibodies against said predetermined flavivirus that are present in said biological sample and identifies the mammal as being infected with said virus.