1. Detection of Bourbon Virus-Specific Serum Neutralizing Antibodies in Human Serum in Missouri, USA
- Author
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Gayan Bamunuarachchi, Houda Harastani, Paul W. Rothlauf, Ya-nan Dai, Ali Ellebedy, Daved Fremont, Sean P. J. Whelan, David Wang, and Adrianus C. M. Boon
- Subjects
Missouri ,Ticks ,Seroepidemiologic Studies ,Animals ,Humans ,Antibodies, Neutralizing ,Thogotovirus ,Molecular Biology ,Microbiology ,United States - Abstract
Bourbon virus (BRBV) was first discovered in 2014 in a fatal human case. Since then it has been detected in the tick Amblyomma americanum in the states of Missouri and Kansas in the United States. Despite the high prevalence of BRBV in ticks in these states, very few human cases have been reported, and the true infection burden of BRBV in the community is unknown. Here, we developed two virus neutralization assays, a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-BRBV pseudotyped rapid assay and a BRBV focus reduction neutralization assay, to assess the seroprevalence of BRBV neutralizing antibodies in human sera collected in 2020 in St. Louis, MO. Of 440 human serum samples tested, three (0.7%) were able to potently neutralize both VSV-BRBV and wild-type BRBV. These findings suggest that human infections with BRBV are more common than previously recognized.
- Published
- 2022