PREPARATION OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS E1 HAVING HELICASE ACTIVITY AND METHOD THEREFOR

摘要

The present invention relates to a method for the isolation and purification of a cloned papillomavirus (PV) E1 protein from a eukaryotic expression system which has detectable and reproducible viral helicase activity and is free of contaminating activities. The present invention further relates to the use of this novel protein extraction method for the isolation of a substantially purified, preferably substantially pure, E1 protein having helicase activity for the development of screening assays for antiviral agents. More particularly, the present invention provides an E1 protein, a large number of samples, for the development of a highly efficient screening assay for agents that are capable of inhibiting PV DNA replication. The assay is based on the measurement of the inhibition of the antiviral agent E1 protein activity, more specifically helicase activity. HE