Chemiluminescent optical fiber immunosensor for the detection of IgM antibody to dengue virus in humans

Infection with dengue virus has emerged as the most important vector-borne viral disease in tropical areas and it continues to expand geographically. The four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV) cause human disease and are transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. A reliable diagnosis remains a crucial step towards the control of dengue disease in human populations. In this work, a new diagnostic tool was developed based on chemiluminescent optical fiber immunosensor (OFIS), for the detection of anti-DENV immunoglobulin M (IgM) in human serum samples. The immunoassay was based on a colorimetric IgM capture, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MAC-ELISA), routinely used by the National Reference Center for arboviruses based in French Guiana. The detection of human anti-DENV IgM using colorimetric MAC-ELISA, chemiluminescent MAC-ELISA and chemiluminescent OFIS was compared. An internal panel of reference sera was used and 86 sera samples were screened. Compared to standard colorimetric MAC-ELISA, the chemiluminescent OFIS had a lower detection limit, 10 times lower than the chemiluminescent MAC-ELISA and 100 times lower than the colorimetric MAC-ELISA. Therefore the colorimetric and chemiluminescent MAC-ELISA's are more suitable for high and intermediate levels of anti-DENV IgM present in serum samples, whereas the chemiluminescent OFIS is also useful at low analyte concentration, with sensitivity and specificity of 98.1% and 87.0%, respectively. Taking into account the lower limit of detection and the high correlation between the established methods with the known panel, the OFIS technology reported here is reliable, simple to perform, fast, cost effective, and a field operable analytical tool.