Indian scientists have developed a handy diagnostic tool that detects White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV). The peptide-based diagnostic tool developed by scientists of Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has been granted a patent.

To provide a handy, self-use diagnostic for WSSV, Prabir Kulabhusan, Jyutika Rajwade and Kishore Paknikar developed a lateral flow assay using gold nanoparticles for easy visualization of the results. Instead of using poly-/mono-clonal antibodies in assay development, the ARI scientists selected twelve amino acids containing peptides from a phage display library by biopanning. This was a time- and cost-saving approach, eliminating the need for immunization of laboratory animals to obtain the antisera. With the use of peptides, cold-chain requirements for storage are reduced and the assay becomes production-friendly.

“Our data indicates high specificity (100%) and sensitivity (96.77%) of the assay, early detection from hemolymph, highly reproducible results with a time-to-result of only 20 minutes,” said Jyutika Rajwade in a press release. 

The research was published in Applied Microbiology & Biotechnology and Journal of Molecular Modelling.