FluChip‐8G Insight: HA and NA subtyping of potentially pandemic influenza A viruses in a single assay

BACKGROUND: Global influenza surveillance in humans and animals is a critical component of pandemic preparedness. The FluChip-8G Insight assay was developed to subtype both seasonal and potentially pandemic influenza viruses in a single assay with a same day result. FluChip-8G Insight uses whole gene segment RT-PCR-based amplification to provide robustness against genetic drift and subsequent microarray detection with artificial neural network-based data interpretation. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to verify and validate the performance of the FluChip-8G Insight assay for the detection and positive identification of human and animal origin non-seasonal influenza A specimens. METHODS: We evaluated the ability of the FluChip-8G Insight technology to type and HA and NA subtype a sample set consisting of 297 results from 180 unique non-seasonal influenza A strains (49 unique subtypes). RESULTS: FluChip-8G Insight demonstrated a positive percent agreement >/=93% for 5 targeted HA and 5 targeted NA subtypes except for H9 (88%), and negative percent agreement exceeding 95% for all targeted subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: The FluChip-8G Insight neural network-based algorithm used for virus identification performed well over a data set of 297 naive sample results, and can be easily updated to improve performance on emerging strains without changing the underlying assay chemistry.