Artikel
Preliminary serological investigation of proteins encoded by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome associated coronavirus
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Autoren
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Hai Pang
- Laboratory of Structural Biology, Tsinghua University, and National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Mark Bartlam
- Laboratory of Structural Biology, Tsinghua University, and National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Zihe Rao
- Laboratory of Structural Biology, Tsinghua University, and National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| Veröffentlicht: | 17. Juni 2004 |
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Gliederung
Text
A new coronavirus has been identified as the causative agent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. We have performed large scale expression of proteins encoded by the SARS associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Using sera from four SARS patients, we investigated the serological characteristics of both structural and some nonstructural proteins. While only a few of the structural proteins expressed in E. coli were detectable by Western blot, most of the proteins and polypeptide fragments could be detected by ELISA. The spike (S) protein is the major antigen in SARS-CoV and features both conformation-dependent and -independent epitopes. Furthermore, several nonstructural proteins of SARS-CoV were found to have higher levels of ELISA antibodies in sera of patients, suggesting that the nonstructural proteins may prove important in future applications of ELISA diagnostics for SARS-CoV infection, such as distinguishing between SARS-infected patients and vaccinated persons. It is hoped that our preliminary results could be used to direct a further study using larger numbers of patient sera.
