Novel approaches to capturing and recovering human norovirus using porcine gastric mucins

Human norovirus is the primary cause of non-bacterial gastroenteritis world-wide. Porcine gastric mucins (PGM) contain histo-blood group antigens that are capable of binding multiple genotypes of HuNoV, unlike monoclonal antibodies (mAB) which are less cross-reactive. The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) To determine the limit of detection (LOD) for PGM- and mAB- conjugated magnetic bead-based recovery assays in the context of elution buffers commonly used in Food Virology; 2) To determine if the addition PGM to existing low-cost recovery methods could increase virus recovery. When magnetic beads were coated with PGM, assay detection limits were lower than with mAB-coated beads for all buffer matrices tested. Neutral pH buffers were most compatible, providing a low LOD with minimal non-specific binding. Although repeatability was poor for the novel PGM assays, results warrant future exploration and are an important step in developing cost-effective, rapid and reliable method for norovirus detection.