Preparation of colloidal gold immunochromatigraphic test to detect dog exposure to Phlebotomus Perniciosus in endemic settings of canine Leishmaniasis
Abstract
ntroduction: Canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is a zoonotic disease, caused by L. infantum and transmitted by the bite of a female sand fly (Diptera: Phlebotominae). In the Mediterranean area, Phlebotomus perniciosus is considered to be the major vector of L. infantum.
When a female sand fly bites a host, saliva is injected into the host skin and elicits a humoral immune response. Anti-sand fly saliva antibody levels are known to correlate with the intensity of host exposure to sand flies.
In this study, a prototype of an immunochromatographic test (ICT) is being presented to detect canine exposure to P. perniciosus. This ICT will facilitate and speed up the screening process of dog sera samples in large-scale epidemiological studies.
Methods: We developed a colloidal gold ICT in the lateral-flow format (cassette device) in which the recombinant salivary protein rSP03B is used as antigen. Sera samples from dogs experimentally exposed to 200 P. perniciosus females and from naturally exposed dogs that were sampled multiple times during two transmission seasons were used to evaluate the test.
Pre-immune dog sera were used as negative controls. Results: A prototype of the ICT is prepared and will be field-validated in Catalonia during the summer of 2017 (July - September).
Conclusion: We present an ICT prototype that detects dog exposure against P. perniciosus, an important vector of CanL. In the future, this test can be employed to fast screen sera samples during large-scale epidemiological studies of CanL in the Mediterranean area.