Design of an ELISA Kit for Detection Human Acute Q Fever

Background and Aim: Q fever, due to Coxiella burnetii, is a zoonosis with a worldwide distribution. This disease is a public health problem in many countries especially in recent years. The diagnosis of Q fever relies mainly upon serology, the most commonly used method being the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). This technique is preferred to other serological tests because of its reliability, high sensitivity and specificity. The aim of this research was to design an ELISA kit for detection of acute Q fever.Materials and Methods: In current study, an indirect ELISA has been developed and optimized for detection of anti-human phase II C. burnetii antibodies. Activity of developed kit was compared with a commercial kit. Also 45 suspected serum samples were tested to evaluate its performance . Results: The constructed ELISA kit was able to detect serum samples with high specificity and sensitivity similar to a commercial diagnostic kit. Evaluation of 45 suspected human serums by this kit revealed 9 sera (20 %) as positive, 32 sera (71.11 %) as negative and 4 sera (8.88 %) as border line. Conclusions: These data indicated that the developed ELISA Kit can be used in diagnosis of acute Q fever in human patients.

Keywords:

Diagnostic kit , Coxiella burnetii , ELISA , Acute Q fever