Humoral immunity profile against the yellow fever virus of two asymptomatic populations from the Atlantic Forest rural region of São Paulo state, Brazil.

Author(s)

Lilia Mara Mesquita Dutra

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI)
• Defense date: 2009-12-11

Examining board members

Edison Luiz Durigon; Marcelo Bahia Labruna; Eduardo Massad; Luiz Eloy Pereira; Leonardo José Richtzenhain

• Advisor: Edison Luiz Durigon

Abstract

Yellow fever (YF) is an non-contagious infection disease. The clinical signs can be a nonspecific fever or the classical ictero-hemorrhagic form as a result of the Yellow Fever virus (YFV) infection. Considering the recent spread of the disease to the South and Southeast of Brazilian regions and the increased number of fatal cases, the aim of this study was to evaluate the possible circulation of the YFV, using the IgM enzyme-linked immnunosorbent assay (MACELISA) and Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), as well as, to conduct a serological inquire and evaluate the protective vaccine response, by the hemagglutination inhibition test (HI) and serum neutralization test (SN), in the rural population of Jacupiranga and Teodoro Sampaio, located in the southern region of Brazil. A total of 238 serum samples were tested, 152 from Jacupirang and 86 from Teodoro Sampaio. Of the serum collected, 15,9% (38/238) were positive by HI, using wild and vaccine strains of YF, and out of these 13,16% (5/38) were from Jacupiranga and 86,84% (33/38) were from Teodoro Sampaio. Neutralizing antibodies were detected in 34% of the HI positive samples (13SN/38HI) and out of these 15,38% (2/13) were from Jacupiranga and 84,62% (11/13) were from Teodoro Sampaio. None of the samples were positive by MACELISA and RT-PCR indicating no evidences of recent virus circulation in the population analyzed in this study. However, the YF neutralizing antibodies detection in samples from Jacupiranga indicates the necessity of further researches in order to detect the YFV in its wild reservoirs and vectors. On the other hand, considering that 42,30% of the Teodoro Sampaio samples were positive by HI and out of these only 33,33% had neutralizing antibodies to the YFV, our results also pointed out to the importance of pos-vaccination protective immunity surveys, in order to evaluate the efficiency of the vaccines in endemic areas. (AU)