PURIFICATION OF A BACULOVIRUS-EXPRESSED HEPATITIS-E VIRUS STRUCTURAL PROTEIN AND UTILITY IN AN ENZYME-LINKED-IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY

We report on the purification of the full-length structural protein en coded by open reading frame 2 (ORF-2) of hepatitis E virus. The ORF-2 protein, expressed in Sf9 cells by using a recombinant baculovirus vec tor system, was successfully purified to homogeneity. Gel electrophore sis of the purified ORF-2 protein showed a single polypeptide of 75 kD a by Coomassie blue staining and by Western blot (immunoblot) analysis . We demonstrated that the partially purified ORF-2 protein could be u sed successfully in a sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbe nt assay for the detection of antibodies to hepatitis E virus.