Evaluation of Direct Rapid Immunohistochemical Test (DRIT) of canis lupus familiaris hippocampal touch impression smears using a monospecific polyclonal antibody for rabies virus detection

• Main Authors: Ang, Mary Jasmin C., Llenaresas-Manalo, Daria, Jarilla, Blanca, Tuason, Laarni, Avenido, Eleonor, Demetria, Catalino, Medina, Plebeian, Quiambao, Beatriz, Acosta, Luz
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University Knowledge Digital Repository 2016
• Subjects: dFAT; immunohistochemistry; monospecific polyclonal antibodies; rabies; touch impressions; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://www.ukdr.uplb.edu.ph/journal-articles/1731; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320690883_Evaluation_of_Direct_Rapid_Immunohistochemical_Test_DRIT_of_Canis_lupus_familiaris_Hippocampal_Touch_Impression_Smears_Using_a_Monospecific_Polyclonal_Antibody_for_Rabies_Virus_Detection

Background. Rabies is an important zoonotic disease that needs to be eradicated worldwide. It is still prevalent in the Philippines, thus development of a relatively affordable but still accurate and rapid post-mortem detection test for the virus is desired, especially in regional laboratories. Methods. The study evaluated the Direct Rapid Immunohistochemical Testing (DRIT) of hippocampal touch impressions of suspected rabid Canis lupus familiaris using monospecific N protein polyclonal antibody developed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). One hundred sixty (160) acetone-fixed hippocampal touch impressions were subjected to DRIT. Results. One hundred thirteen (70.6%) out of 160 samples tested positive for rabies viral antigen (RVA) and 47 (29.4%) out of 160 samples tested negative for RVA. No false positive and false negative result were obtained. The results agree with the gold standard, dFAT. Conclusion. DRIT was able to detect low to high concentrations of RVA in the hippocampal touch impressions based on the grading distribution. DRIT had 100% sensitivity, specificity and over-all accuracy using monospecific polyclonal antibodies, which suggests its use as a more affordable alternative to the gold standard dFAT.