DEVELOPMENT OF AN ELISA TO DETECT MX-VIRUS, A HUMAN CALICIVIRUS IN THE SNOW MOUNTAIN AGENT GENOGROUP

MX virus is a Snow Mountain agent (SMA) genogroup human calicivirus (HuCV) identified in a Mexican child with diarrhoea. An ELISA using hyperimmune antisera to the recombinant MX virus (rMX) capsid was developed to detect SMA genogroup HuCVs in stool specimens. The rMX ELISA detected the prototype MX virus, SMA, and Hawaii agent (HA), but not Norwalk virus (NV) or Sapporo virus. Twenty-three diarrhoea stool specimens from children attending day care centres in Norfolk, Virginia, were positive by the rMX ELISA and results were confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Eight of 20 diarrhoea stool specimens from children in the United Kingdom previously shown to contain small round structured viruses (SRSVs) or HuCVs by electron microscopy were also positive by the rMX ELISA and RT-PCR. Sequence analysis of the RT-PCR products showed that all the rMX ELISA-positive viruses belong to the SMA genogroup. These data also showed that the SMA genogroup can be further divided into two subgroups: subgroup 1 includes prototypes SMA and HA, and subgroup 2 includes MX virus, minireovirus, Oth-25 and Bristol virus.