title: Overexpression and simple purification of human immunodeficiency virus-1 gag epitope derived from a recombinant antigen in E. coli and its use in ELISA.
abstract: To develop a test for diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) exposure sensitivity, a part of the gag gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, using expression vectors containing a trp promoter. The immunoreactivity of recombinant protein was determined using HIV-1 specific antibodies in a Western blot analysis. The recombinant plasmid, pYHCgag3, gag gene was fused to the trpE' gene linked to the hydroxylamine (HA) cleavage recognition sequence which was induced to overexpress a core antigen (gag a.a. 121-398 from plasmid BH10) as fusion protein in the form of insoluble inclusion body. Recombinant gag was purified by a simple single step purification procedure. After partial purification of inclusion bodies and subject to the HA-cleavage treatment, gag protein was further purified to homogeneity using DEAE-Sepharose chromatography. The purified core antigen offered reliable results with high sensitivity and specificity for identification of HIV-1 antibodies when tested in the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). These results suggest that mass production of recombinant core antigen will provide a valuable resource to HIV-1 serodiagnostics for the screening of large groups of blood donors to prevent HIV-1 infection.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Genetics Lab, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, South Korea.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Y I
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D003001:Cloning, Molecular / Q000379:methods; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D004926:Escherichia coli; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015750:Genes, gag; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010957:Plasmids; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015183:Restriction Mapping
chemical_list: D015683:Gene Products, gag; D011994:Recombinant Proteins