Rubella virus immunological profiling and non-structural protein-200 gene detection amongst women attending selected tertiary hospitals in North-Central Nigeria

Backgrounds: Rubella virus-RV poses a risk to the mother and fetus manifested as miscarriage, stillbirth, and deformity. This study aimed to assess RV's immunological profile and risk factors amongst women attending two selected tertiary health facilities in North-Central Nigeria and evaluated a designed primer for non-structural protein region (NSP)-200. Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was used for serological profiling, and structured questionnaire was used for demography, risk factor, and medical record analysis. Regression analysis was used to evaluate predictors of infection while a molecular approach was adopted for primer design, gel imaging, sequencing, and phylogeny analysis. Results: Of the 200 respondents from each location i.e. Federal Medical Centre (FMC)-Keffi, and General Hospital (GH)-Minna, 29 (14.5%) and 48 (24.0%) convalescent phase, 17 (8.5%) and 37 (18.5%) (Immunoglobulin-M (IgM)), and 72 (36.0%) and 73 (36.5%) for immunoglobulin-G (IgG) were recorded convalescent phase respectively. Risk groups were recorded at 82 (41%) and 42 (21%) respectively. Blood transfusion, travel history, and contact frequency were recorded to be significant to infection. Rash, fever, joint pain and eye coloration was recorded to be significant predictors of rubella infection. The sequence of amplicon at 200bp had similarity-index/relatedness to other deposited strains of rubella virus. The phylogenetic tree shows that the NSP is closely related to specific Rubella virus sequences, particularly nonstructural proteins further expatiating the evolutionary or functional aspects of the viral genome being studied. Conclusion: Prevalence of rubella virus was recorded with significant predictors and symptoms. The designed primer was efficient for the molecular detection.