New Highly Sensitive Method May Offer Early Detection Of Dengue Virus

The researchers are from Gen-Probe Incorporated, San Diego, California and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Fort Collins, Colorado.

Dengue virus (DENV) is currently recognized as the most widely spread mosquito-borne virus. The World Health Organization reported between 50 million and 100 million cases of dengue-related disease in 2004. Mosquitoes' expansion of their geographical distribution throughout the tropical regions of South East Asia and the Americas over the last two decades is largely attributed to population growth as well as increased international travel and trade.

Early diagnosis of DENV has proved challenging largely due to the undifferentiated fever and other unspecific symptoms that patients present with 5 to 7 days postinfection. Patients that present with acute dengue disease are viremic, but may not yet have developed detectable antibodies. Serological testing has been the main method used for diagnosing DENV, but this approach generally only confirms infection after the patient has recovered.

Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR testing has been used more frequently for diagnosing dengue virus, however sensitivity levels only range between 40% and 80% in serologically confirmed cases. Transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) is a highly sensitive blood screening method with detection limits of approximately 95%. In the study researchers compared the sensitivity of TMA to that of (RT)-PCR and found TMA to be 10 to 100 times more sensitive. Further testing showed that among samples from patients with serologically confirmed dengue infection, TMA detected DENV RNA in 80% of specimens that were negative according to the RT-PCR test used and in all specimens with positive RT-PCR results.

"Our results indicate that TMA detects DENV RNA in approximately 89% of acute-phase serum specimens and therefore may provide a useful diagnostic test for acute DENV infections," say the researchers.