A novel approach through application of lateral flow assay (immunochromatography) for detection of rabies virus in the cell culture harvest

Abstract

The Anigen rapid immunodiagnostic test was employed to confirm the propagation of Dr. Larghi's strain of rabies virus in BHK 21 cells through it's detection in cell culture harvest. In all, 25 infected (harvests from infected BHK 21 cells) and 15 uninfected controls (spent medium from uninfected BHK21 cells) were tested for the study. The rapid immunodiagnostic test was able to detect rabies virus antigen in the harvests from all the infected BHK 21 cells but not in the culture supernatant (spent medium from uninfected T25 flasks). Further application of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) confirmed the presence of rabies virus in the harvests from infected BHK 21 cells but not in the spent medium from uninfected T25 flasks. The rapid immunodiagnostic test for rabies virus antigen detection is a straightforward test that can be run under laboratory conditions and without a microscope or electricity, and yield results in 5 minutes. This rapid immunodiagnostic test is a quick, inexpensive, and easy to use tool that can identify rabies positive cell culture harvest, enabling the rapid selection of viral source for downstream applications.