↵Peptide based Indirect ELISA for Detection of Antibodies against Peste des petits ruminants virus

Background: Infectious virus antigen is not recommended for disease monitoring in global Peste des petits ruminants eradication strategies. Native virus antigens are gradually being replaced with recombinant or synthetic peptide antigens. The focus of the present study is to optimize and develop peptide-based immunoassay for the detection of antibodies to PPRV N and H proteins. Methods: Epitopes of PPRV H and N proteins were selected based on prediction with bioinformatics tools and from previous studies. Two peptides each were synthesized for N and H proteins and peptide ELISA developed. The peptide ELISA’s sensitivity and specificity were tested with sera samples collected at different time intervals of vaccination (goat =73, sheep= 62) and 88 random serum samples (goat =47, sheep=41). The collected sera were screened using cELISA before proceeding to peptide ELISA. Result: In competitive ELISA, 106 goat serum samples and 96 sheep serum samples were found to be positive. Fourteen goat serum samples and seven sheep serum sample were shown to be negative. Among120 goat serum samples tested, 114 were found to be positive by peptide ELISA. Similarly, out of 103 sheep serum samples analyzed, 96 were found to be positive with peptide ELISA. The peptide ELISA based on the highly conserved and antigenic N and H epitope detected antibodies to PPRV in precise manner. This study demonstrated the effective use of synthetic peptides as an antigen in the detection of antibodies to PPRV.