Purification of a Baculovirus-Expressed Hepatitis E Virus Structural Protein andUtility in an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

摘要

We report on the purification of the full-length structural protein encoded byopen reading frame 2 (ORF-2) of hepatitis E virus. The ORF-2 protein, expressed in Sf9 cells by using a recombinant baculovirus vector system, was successfully purified to homogeneity. Gel electrophoresis of the purified ORF-2 protein showed a single polypeptide of 75 kDa by Coomassie blue staining and by Western blot (immunoblot) analysis. We demonstrated that the partially purified ORF-2 protein could be used successfully in a sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibodies to hepatitis F virus.