Application of truncated immunodominant polypeptide from hepatitis E virus (HEV) ORF2 in an assay to exclude nonspecific binding in detecting anti-HEV immunoglobulin M.

ABSTRACT: The diagnosis of recent hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection depends on serologic testing for anti-HEV IgM; however, false-positive results may occur. In the present study, we cloned the ORF2 fragment of genotype 4 HEV and demonstrated that a subregion covering amino acids 459 to 607 in ORF2 forms the immunodominant B-cell epitopes, as it does in genotype 1 viruses. Truncation of several residues from either the N or C terminus of the polypeptide abolished the reactivity of anti-HEV from naturally infected persons. By the combination of high reactivity of the immunodominant polypeptide and poor reactivity of the truncated polypeptide, we established an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect anti-HEV IgM. In this assay, all 37 sera that were HEV RNA positive reacted with

SUBMITTER: Pan JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2832410 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature