Reatividade sorológica de três peptídeos sintéticos derivados dos domínios I e II da proteína do envelope do Dengue virus em amostras de soro de pacientes com suspeita de dengue

Abstract

Dengue is a major public health problem worldwide, especially in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Despite the magnitude of the problem, there are still limitations related to the diagnosis, due to the presence of false negative results often presented in the laboratory reports. Studies using the envelope protein are extremely important for the development of new vaccines and new diagnostic tests. Serological methods are important for the diagnosis of dengue infections, and among them, the enzyme linked immunoassay that detects IgM against Dengue virus is very employed. In this study, a panel of 82 serum samples from dengue suspected patients was classified as positive and negative using the commercial ELISA kit Panbio Capture Dengue IgM. Assay performance of the commercial kit was compared with the new indirect ELISA assays using synthetic peptides derived from E protein (Pep1, Pep2 and Pep3) as substrate. Of a total of 82 serum samples, (52.4%) were positive by the commercial ELISA kit Panbio Capture Dengue IgM, 18 (21,95%) showed reactivity against Pep1; 40 (48,78%) against Pep2 and 66 (80,48%) against Pep3. Among the serum samples classified as positive by the commercial kit (42), 11 (26%) are also classified by positive using Pep1 as substrate, 22 (52,3%) using Pep2 as substrate and 40 (95,23%) using Pep3 as substrate. Among the samples classified as negative by the commercial kit (40), 28 (70%) were also classified as negative using Pep1 as substrate, 20 (50%) using Pep2 as substrate and 13 (32.5%) using Pep3 as substrate. The results showed that the synthetic peptides can have biotechnological potential for the development of new vaccines and treatments and diagnostic tests.