RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Field-deployable molecular diagnostic platform for arbovirus and <em>Wolbachia</em> detection in <em>Aedes aegypti</em>
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.04.28.066514
DO 10.1101/2020.04.28.066514
A1 Natalie N. Rutkowski
A1 Yuemei Dong
A1 George Dimopoulos
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/01/2020.04.28.066514.abstract
AB Background Surveillance of mosquito infection status is critical for planning and deployment of proper mosquito control initiatives. Concurrently, Wolbachia is being widely used as a control method for arboviral transmission. Point-of-care (POC) detection assays are necessary for monitoring the infection prevalence and geographic range of viruses as well as Wolbachia in mosquito vector populations. We therefore assessed the novel qPCR bCUBE molecular diagnostic system as a tool for virus and Wolbachia detection.Results We developed a reliable, specific, and sensitive diagnostic assay for detecting Zika virus and dengue virus serotype 2 using the real-time qPCR platform bCUBE. With bCUBE-based qRT-PCR, both Wolbachia bacterium and virus RNA could be reliably detected in individually infected Ae. aegypti mosquitoes and in pools of 5, 10, or 15 mosquitoes.Conclusions The portable qPCR bCUBE diagnostic platform is capable of detecting Zika and dengue virus as well as Wolbachia in mosquitoes and therefore has potential as a practical field-deployable diagnostic test for vector-borne disease surveillance programs.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.