Peptide‑Based Diagnostic Technology for Accurate Differentiation of Zika and Dengue Infections

A peptide‑based immunodiagnostic method that enables reliable differentiation between Zika virus (ZIKV) and Dengue virus (DENV) infections using a standard blood sample. 

Key Information

Overview

Accurate serological diagnosis of flavivirus infections remains challenging due to antibody cross‑reactivity between Zika and dengue viruses. This leads to inconclusive results, misdiagnosis, and impacts patient management and public‑health surveillance; particularly in endemic and outbreak settings.

There is a demand for diagnostics that are:

• More specific to differentiate between closely related flaviviruses  
• Capable of early-stage detection from blood samples
• Compatible with scalable, low-cost assay platforms (for e.g., lateral flow immunoassay, ELISA)

This innovation presents a diagnostic breakthrough for rapidly and accurately identifying flavivirus infections using highly specific peptide-based detection methods. It looks at how virus-specific antibodies in the blood react to carefully selected viral fragments, creating a clear signal for each infection.

Our Innovation

• Epitope-level targeting. Targets virus-specific linear B-cell epitopes rather than broadly reactive viral antigens.
• Discriminatory read-out. Uses a peptide response ratio (Zika vs dengue) as the diagnostic signal.
• Solves cross-reactivity. Directly addresses the cross-reactivity problem common to existing serological assays.
• Early acute detection. Demonstrated ability to detect infections during the early (acute) stage.

Potential Applications

• Multiplex diagnostic kits

Our value proposition

• Clear differentiation of Zika vs dengue. Demonstrated ~80% sensitivity and high specificity (~85%), enabling more confident diagnosis and interpretation
• Reduced false positives. Novel epitopes validated to elicit differential antibody responses
• Product‑ready format. Compatible with standard immunoassay platforms such as ELISA and microarray‑based systems, lowering development barriers
• Scalable and cost‑effective. Synthetic peptides avoid reliance on whole viral antigens or complex recombinant proteins