Development of a Nano-ELISA system for the rapid and sensitive detection of H9N2 avian influenza

Influenza is one of the most important viral diseases that is common among the birds and the mammals and is caused by specific viruses that belong to the Orthomyxoviridae family. Migratory aquatic birds are the reservoir of the disease and there is a likelihood of the disease in any region. There are different methods for detecting the avian influenza, but by the point of detection rates, the ELISA may be one of the most important current methods. In this work we synthesized Gold nanoparticles and conjugated it with rabbit-anti-chicken IgG-HRP. An ELISA test was done to compare the bioactivity of Au-antichicken HRP with anti-chicken HRP in order to detect the antibody against the H9N2 subtype of avian influenza virus. Using 133 field chicken sera, the sensitivity of nano-ELISA as compared to traditional ELISA was calculated to be 100%, whereas the specificity was 92%. This method was significantly more sensitive than the traditional ELISA and didn’t require extra costs. It can therefore be concluded that the AuNP-HRP conjugate can be applicable in immune analysis procedure where a more confident result is required.