Zika and Dengue fevers are the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral diseases transmitted to humans by anthropophilic mosquitoes Aedes (Ae.) aegypti and Ae. albopictus. There are caused by the infection of orthoflaviruses as Zika virus (ZIKV) or any of the four-dengue virus (DENV) serotypes DENV-1 to DENV-4. In humans, the non-structural glycoprotein 1 (NS1) plays a decisive role in virus replication and in immunopathogenesis of virus infection (1).
The NS1 protein has been identified as both a cell-associated homodimer and a soluble secreted lipoprotein nanoparticle. The involvement of the NS1 protein in the infection process is essential but can vary depending on its amino-acid sequence resulting from genome evolution of virus strains. Some specific amino-acid changes on DENV and ZIKV NS1 proteins leads to a strong modulation of cellular toxicity and its secretion level, as well as a variation of antibodies affinity (2-5).
In the southwest of Indian Ocean (SWIO), the tropical islands of Mauritius, Seychelles and Reunion were affected by temporally separated epidemics of DENV-1 and DENV-2 serotypes in the last decade (6). ZIKV strains of African lineage are also of importance due to a high epidemic risk and may spread in SWIO islands where the population is completely naive for them. Hypothetically, a ZIKV infection on a population with preexisting, but wanning, immunity to DENV may lead to new disease severities. To prevent and limit complications on orthoflavirus fevers in this context, rapid diagnosis assays that could differentiate ZIKV from DENV are needed. This work explored the potential of NS1 as a diagnostic target for cross reactive and virus specific antibodies.
Fund French government as part of France 2030 with the support of ANRS I MIE through the ANRS-23-PEPR-MIE 0004 project intitled CAZIKANO.
(1) 10.1016/j.antiviral.2016.02.014 (2) 10.3390/cimb45020106 (3) 10.3390/ijms22041951 (4) 10.3390/ijms19010038 (5) hal-04555519 (6) 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010547