Development of recombinant capsid antigen/transmembrane epitope fusion proteins for serological diagnosis of animal lentivirus infections

• Published in: Journal of virological methods Vol. 121; no. 1; pp. 73 - 78
• Main Authors: Rosati, S., Profiti, M., Lorenzetti, R., Bandecchi, P., Mannelli, A., Ortoffi, M., Tolari, F., Ciabatti, I.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier B.V 01.10.2004; Amsterdam Elsevier; New York, NY
• Subjects: Amino Acid Motifs; Animal lentiviruses; Animals; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Antigens, Viral - genetics; Antigens, Viral - immunology; Biological and medical sciences; Capsid antigen; Capsid Proteins - genetics; Capsid Proteins - immunology; Cats; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Epitopes - genetics; Epitopes - immunology; Equine Infectious Anemia - diagnosis; Equine infectious anemia virus; Feline Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - diagnosis; Feline immunodeficiency virus; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Goat Diseases - diagnosis; Goats; Horses; Immunodeficiency Virus, Feline - isolation & purification; Infectious Anemia Virus, Equine - isolation & purification; Lentivirus; Lentivirus - immunology; Lentivirus - isolation & purification; Lentivirus Infections - diagnosis; Lentivirus Infections - veterinary; Lentivirus Infections - virology; Lentiviruses, Ovine-Caprine - isolation & purification; Microbiology; Protein Structure, Tertiary; Recombinant ELISA; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - immunology; Techniques used in virology; Transmembrane epitope; Viral Envelope Proteins - chemistry; Viral Envelope Proteins - genetics; Viral Envelope Proteins - immunology; Virology; Recombinant ELISA; Capsid antigen; Animal lentiviruses; Transmembrane epitope; Transmembrane protein; Antigenic determinant; Microbiology; Retroviridae; Method; Lentivirus; Virology; Virus; Antigen; Diagnosis; Recombinant protein; Capsid; Fusion protein; ELISA assay
• ISSN: 0166-0934; 1879-0984
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2004.06.001

Among animal lentiviruses, Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), Equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) and Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) are important pathogens associated with a variety of clinical pictures including immunodeficiency, anaemia, arthritis, pneumonia. The detection of viral antibody response represents a practical diagnostic approach in all lentivirus infections since they remain detectable long life. Capsid antigen (CA) is the major viral core protein and specific antibodies against this antigen are usually first recognised in infected sheep, goat and horse, remaining detectable for long period. Transmembrane (TM) domain of envelope glycoprotein contains a well conserved motif known to form an immunodominant epitope in several lentiviruses. In this study a simple strategy was developed to express the entire CA and the TM epitope in a single fusion protein from equine, feline and small ruminant lentiviruses in prokaryotic system and evaluated the diagnostic utility of a purified preparation in an indirect ELISA for each of the three infections. Results demonstrate that, for FIV and SRLV infections, the combination of CA and TM fractions increases the sensitivity of diagnostic tests based only on CA. The corresponding CA/TM antigen from EIAV showed excellent agreement with Coggins test.